I started my personal project to visit each of St. Louis' 108 parks (and Tower Grove Park) back in June, 2013. It felt like a good time for a process check since I'm a year into this.
As of June 1st, I have visited a total of 74 parks and have 35 remaining.
Here are the parks on my list to complete by this fall:
You might ask yourself, hey 74 + 35 = 109...and you are right. The city website is incorrect...at least I think. It's hard to tell who is the real authority on St. Louis parks. For example, Lucas Gardens is listed twice on the city website. And Hamilton Heights Park is listed, but I can't find. I've asked my firemen friends (who know the city like the back of their hand) and they can't find it either. I've got an email into Alderman Boyd, hopefully he can help.
Anyhow, there are also parks that are commonly known but lumped in with other parks or excluded entirely....take Eternal Flame Park as an example.
Anyhow, my goal is to visit every park and update my neighborhood profiles with links to the parks to give people a more complete picture of what the neighborhood is like and has to offer. I will also contact the city to try and correct some of the inaccuracies on the website mostly related to bad links for maps and outdated amenities.
Anyhow, I have a lot of fun talking to people or getting yelled at by crazy people/racists in the parks. Getting to know St. Louis and St. Louisan's from north to south has been a joy and life changing experience. While I've never felt like a St. Louis native (didn't grow up here), I'll always feel like somewhat of a tourist and visitor trying to understand what the "real" St. Louis is like. I've painted a pretty good picture in my head and hopefully some of that comes through in these blogs.
When I complete the individual park blogs, I'll summarize some overall findings on parks in general and what works, what doesn't and what it takes to make a decent park space.
Anyhow, thanks for following.
