Well, after writing up an extremely lengthy response, I got logged out. Basically, my feeling about the park is it's been butchered by the stadium and especially the zoo. The golf course doesn't help either. But - none of those are going away, and the problem is that the remaining parkland exists along Olmstead's designs yet we are missing the open space and the promenade (locked inside the zoo), so we really lose the overarching vision of the grand, engineered promenade-type park on the one hand, and left only with the woodsy and wild side. This leaves the whole public part of the park feeling lopped off and abandoned. The best thing would be for the city to pump in a lot of money on a new design team to reconsider the whole layout, allowing better accomodation of the stadium, golf course and zoo but restoring some greater vision of what the park is meant to be.. because right now, that's what it lacks most.
In my dream world, a subway would run up to the park and terminate right at Blue Hill and Columbia. This would literally put it on the map at every station and make the park a very visible and accessible destination that would in turn bring in more flow and help clean up the area. Subway or no, that intersection ought to be made the next community focus and rezoned, with the goal of much larger buildings and a district geared toward entertainment, eating and nightlife. Make it a district. Make it have a real sense of place.
In terms of road improvements..
- Seaver, I believe, is the most needlessly wide road in the city. It also has zero feeling of connection to Franklin Park. Narrow it, put in cycle tracks, get rid of the fencing on the park side and make the walking path within the park run along the entire periphery of Seaver (it now forces you out into the road about halfway down). Make Seaver a boulevard by planting trees on the cityside.
- More trees on Blue Hill Ave. Narrow the lanes on that road, and widen the sidewalk on the parkside - maybe a cycletrack, too.
- restore the original Circuit Drive entrance (there's an image on the Casey thread).
In my dream world, a subway would run up to the park and terminate right at Blue Hill and Columbia. This would literally put it on the map at every station and make the park a very visible and accessible destination that would in turn bring in more flow and help clean up the area. Subway or no, that intersection ought to be made the next community focus and rezoned, with the goal of much larger buildings and a district geared toward entertainment, eating and nightlife. Make it a district. Make it have a real sense of place.
In terms of road improvements..
- Seaver, I believe, is the most needlessly wide road in the city. It also has zero feeling of connection to Franklin Park. Narrow it, put in cycle tracks, get rid of the fencing on the park side and make the walking path within the park run along the entire periphery of Seaver (it now forces you out into the road about halfway down). Make Seaver a boulevard by planting trees on the cityside.
- More trees on Blue Hill Ave. Narrow the lanes on that road, and widen the sidewalk on the parkside - maybe a cycletrack, too.
- restore the original Circuit Drive entrance (there's an image on the Casey thread).
