JAX #1.....in a good way

[Bativac]

Jacksonville has some fantastic parks. Parks in other cities are full of artificial landscaping. Jacksonville parks are mostly huge plots of land with a mix of trees and open spaces. Tons of room for outdoor activities - football, frisbee, flying kites...

I've traveled extensively and seen lots of parks in lots of places. Jax compares with all but the most elite cities. I'm not sure what people are expecting out of a park beyond a large, pleasant outdoor space to enjoy oneself. There are a lot of problems with this city but the park system isn't one of them.

To Non-Redneck Westsider's list I'd add FEC Park, Whatley Park, Willow Branch Park, District 2 regional park... Tree Hill Park, which I "discovered" while driving around aimlessly one afternoon. Not to mention the Jacksonville Arboretum. And there's that park under the Dames Point Bridge.

Yeah they could all use a little upkeep, but so could the parks in most cities.

[simms3]

My responses are in bold.

IMO city parks (even the ones in the "upper echelon cities") are generally boring. You walk or jog past park benches, lampposts, pretty foliage, and garbage cans; Some damn college hipster kid sprawled out on a burm reading a book; Ride a stupid duck boat in some lake. Wow! Hell, atleast Jax has plenty of adventurous nature trail type parks for bike riding, and other activities, and a good mix of urban parks too. So just take our #1 park title too; Someone is always raining on Jax's parade! Please simms, explain what's so great about a park in a city like Charlotte that you've mentioned; Why is it so vastly superior to a park like Memorial? 

I guess such famous urban parks with mundane landscaping, lakes, and filled with college students are so boring that they are the most visited parks in the country by everyone.  I can't help but point out that your comment reeks of some sort of chip on your shoulder against not only college students, but also landscape architects (should we mention Olmsted?) and potentially other cities.  Do you not think other cities have nature trails, too?  Maybe Jax has more per capita, but other cities have plenty of nature oriented preserves and parks and trails; Jax is not alone there and did not invent that concept.  I'll give you Charlotte since I have only seen pictures and I was judging by the pictures and the people using the parks in the pictures I saw (and the parks seemed well landscaped and maintained).

ok...try Timucuan Preserve...do other cities have parks like that?

Ummm, wow.  There are probably 25 other "Timucuan Preserve" type parks in FL, several in coastal GA and SC and NC, etc.  Timucuan Preserve has its unique history and Fort Caroline, but the actual nature preserve/park portion is completely not unique!  That was not a good question to ask because YES every major city has preserved land and nature parks, especially in warmer climate states like FL.

Timicuan Preserve (Tillie Fowler?) is an amazing place to go and spend a day.
Replicated all up and down the coast minus the fort.

The Talbots
Replicated all up and down the coast, especially in SW FL.

Can't think of the name of the big park between Ponte Vedra & Velano (too lazy to look it up now)
Guana Tolomato Preserve; replicated all up and down the coast.

Boone Park
I live near Boone.  It is a sad excuse for a park.  The only thing used in Boone are the public tennis courts, which are sub-par for a supposedly "nice" urban park.  The park itself is disgustingly crappy.  It's basically a tacky kiddie playground on one end, a pine forest with the shrubs cut out through out its length, and then tennis courts on the other end.  With all of the people within walking and biking distance and the amount of available parking and everything that's nearby (shops of Avondale for instance) NOBODY uses the park because it's not nice.  Nice try.

Riverside Park
Aside from a few events (like the Art Show which I used to volunteer at) and a recent cleanup and minor rehab, this park could be great.  It suffers from an iffy location, but it has a LONG way to go and hopefully will get there.  It can't be called a "nice" and "great" park right now when it is half as good as its former self.

Even Hemming Plaza is a nice park if you can look past the Urbanians
I like Hemming Plaza, but come on, every city has AT LEAST ONE Hemming Plaza.  Bigger cities have "Hemming Plazas" all over the place, some plenty nicer, too.

Ringhaver (if you want wide open fields to play)
Played soccer here when I was a kid.  It's just a soccer field, not a park really.  I also knew kids in high school who used to come to Ringhaver just to pick shrooms (and pretend they were doing a science experiment, LOL).  It's in a mediocre area, is nowhere near urban, kids play soccer, there's a playground if I remember correctly (who uses playground anymore anyway?), and that's it.  Every city has soccer fields and baseball fields, come on.

There's another park that is awesome off of Soutel several acres of tree lined paths, ballfields, soccer fields, pavillions etc....

Once again, sports fields and pavilions are in every city in America.  I'm sure Jax can't even win that on a per capita basis.

Yeah they could all use a little upkeep, but so could the parks in most cities.

I think you summed up what needs to be done to truly be #1 

Bottom line, we can't put soccer fields and preserves in the equation because there are preserves in every city, ESPECIALLY FL, and there are soccer fields in every city and town across America.  Soccer fields were separate from parks in SimCity, remember?  With those out of the equation, Jacksonville has nothing really.  we have maybe 3 or 4 decent small parks that are used, and then a huge amount of parks that sit empty and neglected.  Are you still trying to say we are #1?

I of all people, at least on other boards, sing Jacksonville's praises and showcase the city like nobody else, but I am pretty realistic about our strengths and weaknesses, and parks is a weakness we have.  You guys say we have the beach.  Well how unique is a beach when there are thousands of miles of coastline?  You have to take that out of the equation, too.  I don't want to get into uniqueness of our beach, as I will agree, Atlantic and Neptune Beach and some other beaches are entirely unique, but those are the houses and the layout and the history.

The river you say?  Aside from the Talbots (towards the Beach) and Timucuan Preserve in Arlington, the "nicer" less industrial sections of the river are 99% private.  There are a couple of parks like Memorial, "space" in front of the River at the start of River Road in San Marco, Stockton, Baker, and then that lame excuse for a park called McGirts Park where we used to drink and smoke after school because NOBODY paid attention to the place.  The Riverwalk is nice, but still nobody uses it (which is sad), but that's because nobody comes downtown and that's a whole different problem that we discuss on 60% of the threads on this forum.

And for those criticizing my love affair with Piedmont Park.  I live 2 blocks away, so it's the park I use the most in Atlanta, and this one park is more heavily used and appreciated than every single park in Jax combined.  Paul McCartney just had a concert there and the Eagles are about to play there.  There are events and art shows and food things and something going on in the park most days out of every week, and the park is HUGE and beautifully maintained.  The Botanical Gardens are in the park, there is Atlanta's kinda sorta Tavern on the Green (called Park Tavern) at one end, large fields, a lake, swimming pools, tennis courts, tracks, sports fields, pretty benches and landscaping, you name it, not to mention it was designed by Olmsted.

Someone made the comment that Atlantans flee Atlanta on the weekend to go to Lake Lanier, and many do, but many suburbanites flee the suburbs on Saturday and Sunday to come spend the day at the park.  The park is one of the focal points of the city (much like the river is to Jacksonville, except people actually use the park).  If you guys haven't seen Piedmont, then you have no room to criticize my love affair.  It's a well deserved love affair!

[Gonzo]

Timicuan Preserve (Tillie Fowler?) is an amazing place to go and spend a day.

Tillie Fowler is across from NAS Jax, and there is usually looking for some "action" there.

"Action?"

[SunKing]

So it sounds like your definition of a park is different than most.  My view and I believe the view of most is that a park is an open space made available for anyone to enjoy.  I personally love visiting Boone Park, Willowbranch, Riverside and Memorial Parks with family.  Lots of other folks seem to as well.  Yesterday I joined perhaps several thousand people at the beach to enjoy an afternoon of surfing.  It was simply outstanding and while you might add that there are many miles of coastline,  I believe that we have the finest particularly located so close to a metropolitan area.  It may not be your cup of tea, but it was a pretty amazing way to spend a Friday afternoon and it was free and free to all.

You only hold Piedmont Park up as an ideal and everything in Jacksonville is lame and not unique?  If Piedmont Park is your ideal, and you wish to make comparisons by city, I would only suggest that Piedmont Park is a knockoff of Central Park and a pretty lame one at that.