Park Talk
Read what people had to say about our choices for the world's best and worst parks. Plus, the National Park Service and the Downtown DC BID team up to improve public spaces in the capital.
September's Special Parks Issue, and our list of the world's best and worst parks in particular, provoked many reactions from Making Places readers. We are pleased to reprint a sample of these responses below.
There is one park that maybe isn't world famous but it is the one park that people find when they come to Vancouver and fall in love with. Kitsilano Beach Park complete with a 150 yard long oceanfront open air pool and one of the best beaches in Vancouver. I have been in 50 countries and it gets my vote.
- Richard Johnson
Vancouver, BC
Did you forget about Chicago's Botanical Garden? People in the northern suburbs actually ride their bicycles to the Gardens.
I think Millennium Park is great--it's simply too much happening in its spaces. Isn't Chicago lucky to have its waterfront!
- Patricia M. Greason, AICP
Jacksonville, FL
I didn't see the Wissahickon Park in Philadelphia, or the Fairmount Park System of which it is a part, on either list, but I lived in Philadelphia for 5 years and I think they are both impressive, and at the same time underfunded and needing support. Any comments from PPS about either park?
- Francis Vanek
Ithaca, NY
I just read Fred Kent's article "Parks for the Future." As a registered Landscape Architect I couldn't agree more. I work for a local municipality. We spend a lot of time and energy listening to our residents about what they want in "their" parks. And let's face it, public parks belong to the people that pay for them and use them. I appreciate that Fred and PPS have made a distinction between the "elites" of the profession of Landscape Architecture and the majority of practitioners.
- Robert C. Walter, RLA
Amherst, NY
Editor's Note: The staff at PPS agrees that the parks mentioned above are very good, and Fairmount Park is listed as a Great Public Space on our website. We always enjoy hearing about the public spaces that have won over our readers, and we encourage everyone to nominate the places they love on our website, or send us a short essay about your favorite place.
National Park Service and Downtown DC BID partner to improve Washington's public spaces.
For most people, the words "national park" conjure up images of majestic western landscapes like Yosemite or the Grand Canyon. But did you know the National Park Service (NPS) is also the largest owner of public parkland in Washington DC? Much of this parkland takes the form of small urban spaces downtown.
Now the NPS and the Downtown DC Business Improvement District are joining forces to improve some of these notable downtown parks, including Franklin Square and McPherson Square. "Public parks have provided beautiful open spaces for rest and recreation in Downtown for over 140 years," said Arnold Goldstein, NPS superintendent for National Capital Parks-Central. "Our improvement to these national parks will assure that they remain open and inviting to the public."
Links: National Park Service; Downtown DC BID.
Parks in the News has moved!
Readers familiar with this space will notice that our collection of headlines on urban parks, "Parks in the News," is absent this month. That's because we've merged all our news headlines into one feature, "Places in the News," which combines the all the articles we scrape together from online news sources, including subject matter related to our program areas in Parks, Markets, Streets, and Buildings.
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