Yesterday (Sunday the 28th) I took advantage of the great spring-like weather that we had and spent several hours just walking around the Olentangy Trail between the wetlands area and campus. I started out at the crowded Tuttle Park Rec Center where there were families on the playground with their small children and looped my way around the wetlands.

At one point I stopped and relaxed on one of the benches for the better part of an hour. I saw people riding bikes, walking, jogging, walking their dogs, hiking, fishing, and sitting on the riverbank. It was a busy day on the trail, and I was surprised at how many different kinds of people I saw. I saw children riding bikes with friends. I saw college students of course, but they were seriously outnumbered by the adults using the trail. I was not expecting to see a crowd of middle-aged and elderly folks in a park so close to campus. My favorite thing that I saw was two college aged guys sitting on a limb of one of the trees that hangs out over the water. There is a picture attached that shows someone sitting in this tree, but the two boys I saw were way out on the end of the branch and they looked really comfortable just hanging there soaking ups rays.

When I was done sitting on the bench, I opted to take a hike right along the riverbank past the wetlands area. There is actually a well defined foot path that follows the curvature of the river. The river itself is pretty gross (I noticed lots of trash floating), but it feels good to step out of the city. From this path you can’t see the trail and it really feels like you’re hiking in the woods. I was overtaken by more than one person on a hardcore mountain bike using this trail like a single-track mountain bike trail. I never knew this was here. I’ll have to come back with my bike and give it a try. The other thing that I found when I got off the paved trail was this massive lean-to that someone obviously spent some time working on constructing.

City parks are an important part of the urban landscape. They generally started out as the pet projects of wealthy philanthropists. In 1728 when Boston Common was established (Wikipedia), we can generally agree that this was the first established city park in the U.S. City parks were initially established on the outskirts of town where land was readily available and typically functioned as playgrounds for the rich. They were not accessible to the working class that was not able to get the outskirts of town in order to enjoy the parks.

Over time, the definition of park slowly transformed from a natural area for the wealthy to enjoy into more of a recreational area and included fields for sports, stadiums, and more. Parks also moved inward towards the center of the city. The small “pocket parks” that occupy only a block of city space and include jungle gyms and other recreational equipment were born. Our own metro park system was born in 1945 (Wikipedia) by the Ohio Revised Code.

It has been generally accepted that providing residents with a park service with active programing does not need justification anymore. This idea still comes under fire occasionally. City managers and planners like to try to take park lands to do other projects with. Active park management means that the park provides sporting programs and promotes activities whereas a passive park would just be a natural green space that has not been severely altered by human hands where urban dwellers can go to relax and get out of the city. I think that it is good that cities do this. Parks I feel are an essential part of the character of a city and seriously improve the quality of life for residents.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_park

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_Parks_(Columbus,_Ohio)