I retired from the OKC Parks department in 2006, I'm very interested in the way the city parks are built and maintained, any feed back would be appreciated.

I'm glad you brought this up daniel. I've thought about starting a thread on this before but never got around to it.....besides I'm sure you have more insight than I do. For the most part I think the city does a good job with the parks. They keep the major parks mostly clean and mowed, however I do have some questions you might be able to answer.

I only go to a few of the parks to play disc-golf or to run and I'm sure every park has its unique situations but I wish they would do something with the creek that runs through will rogers. I know its primary purpose is a storm runoff creek but most of the year the creek on the west side of the park is just a trickle of water runing through a jagged broken concrete and glass littered wasteland. I'm not usually one to say that the 45 degree angle concrete sided runoff channels look good, but if you compare the section of the creek on the east side of will rogers to that on the east side there is a huge difference in asthetics.....and safety. Maybe they could concrete the whole thing or with some funding....landsacpe it and build a small pond along the creek near the ampitheatre.

Another thing that bugs me are the picnic pavilions. I know they were fenced off to control vandalism...........but what good are picniic pavilions if noone uses them. Pefect examples are at Overholser lake and will rogers park. Both pavilions are really nice, but very rarley used. And a chain link enclosure in the middle of a city park.......Ouch....not very inviting.

What do we expect of the parks.... The city founders had a vision of four great parks for the four quadrants of the city. But that vision was allowed to disappear or shrink. The city planning leadership has looked at the parks has a way for gaining cheap land for hiway and drainage projects. Looker at the disappearance of topping park and the bird sanctuary along Broadway Ext. Facilites at all the parks have been downgraded and allowed to fall into disrepair so that the public will not use them. Is it no wonder that OKC is on the list for the least healthy of any city. In my opinion the parks should be like the central business district. We should have one of two parks of substantial size the provide many opportunites for recreation and relaxation. If we spread the resource into small bundles throughout the city the resource become diluted and difficult to maintain. By consolidating the parks resources would be greatly enhanced and more use of the parks would occur.

Please remember that there was a significant twenty-one year funding drought from 1974 through 1995 when bond monies that would be used to continue with capital and infrastructure improvements to our parks were voted down. That's twenty-one years with no funding for anything other than basic operations. In short, if there is no money, then nothing gets done. That is why bond issues and other types of funding (MAPS, etc.) are so critical to our City's progress.

They just completed a significant improvement project to the ponds and Will Rogers Park, and have also made significant improvements to Wiley Post Park, which has other projects in the mix. Other significant improvements are being made to other parks each and every day with a focus on building up larger, "regional" parks such as Southlakes, Route 66, Wiley Post, Edwards, Stars and Stripes and Earlywine.

While it's still a few years away, the party house at Will Rogers will see a new rod-iron fence to replace the current chain link fence, thanks to the 2007 General Obligation Bond, which the public voted for.

As for a large "urban core" park, that is in the works. Not only are the Myriad Botanical Gardens slated to get an "extreme makeover" thanks in part to the projected TIF funds generated by the building of the Devon Tower, but the City has already begun working towards purchasing parkland for the Core to Shore "Central Park," which, if implemented as currently envisioned, may provide 40-50 of multi-purpose green space park just south of the Gardens. That is in addition to the "park-like" improvements being considered for the Myriad Gardens' 17-acre outdoor grounds. Improvements to other downtown area parks, including Kerr and Couch Parks, are in the works, although a considerable time off at this point.

FritterGirl, you are so right about the Parks Department funding, it has improved greatly, but in my opinion, it's still way below where it should be.
A few facts that some may find interesting is that the OKC Parks Department maintains almost 7,000 acres, less than 1/2 are "Parks", most are center median, right-of-ways, holding ponds (drainage ditches), etc;
Some areas they maintain that may suprise a few are, Bricktown Canal, Police & Fire training center, all grass areas at Lake's Hefner, Draper and Overholser, Braodway Ext., NW Highway, just to name a few.

As a child Will Rogers was a show place. Our family would pincic there and watch the brides getting their photos taken. Jump forward 40 years more dead roses than alive, sidwalks fallen into the debris filled pond and all the fountians and spitters have been capped and filled with concrete. Cyclone fences around the pavillions, leaving them useless. Lewis at the park seems to be trying hard to get blood out of a turnip aka city budget. I live by Dolese park, the walking and biking tracks are so rutted that it's no un common to twist an ankle or crash your bike. I believe the only reason the Frisbee golfers go out their is with the coolers and left handed cigarettes. Who else would venture into the briar and poision infested brambles? With the downturn in the economy more people will be using these facilities, hopefully something can be done. On a bright note the new water parks always seem to be full with the sound of children squeeling and having a great time. Maybe vendor in trucks can visit the parks and supply cold drinks and snacks to the children.

Vendors have tried to sell their products in City Parks, however, the City requires that they have a permit and that permit requires that they pay a percentage back to the City. Most vendors will not or can not adjust their prices to make it worth the effort.

Any inkling what the percentage is? Apparently too much to make a price adjustment feasible to most vendors.

I wish the water parks opened an hour earlier in the summer.

The skateparks are a nice improvement. Wish they'd build more tho. Or add skatepark equipment to existing parks that see little or no traffic.

Will Roger's park is only good for getting high and playin frisbee, illegal immigrant family picnics, or picking up gays. Unfortunately.

I live half a mile from it, and would love to be able to take my kid's out there, but every time I have, something untoward happens.

Cyclone fences around the pavillions, leaving them useless. I live by Dolese park, the walking and biking tracks are so rutted that it's no un common to twist an ankle or crash your bike. I believe the only reason the Frisbee golfers go out their is with the coolers and left handed cigarettes. Who else would venture into the briar and poision infested brambles?

The fences really are rediculous....if its vandals they're trying to keep out....do you really think a chain link fence will keep out a criminal??? Maybe its the homeless they're trying to keep out of the pavilions, if thats the case then the police should patrol them more often....its not like the police aren't right across the street form will rogers. The only thing the fences do is to keep tax paying citizens from using facilities that they payed for and that their tax dollars are paying for the fences to keep them out. Brilliant thinking!!! As for the disc-golfers...most of them are normal everyday people who want to enjoy a game of disc-golf with their friends. I started playing with a friend of mine a few years back and have throughly enjoyed it. Its cheap, its fun, and its decent exercise (without the beer and smoke)

The "infested brambles" ah yes...Thats one of the things I like most about Dolese park...where else in the city can you feel like you're out in the wilderness. I've played their probably 50 times and have yet to get any kind of poision.


The skateparks are a nice improvement. Wish they'd build more tho. Or add skatepark equipment to existing parks that see little or no traffic.

Will Roger's park is only good for getting high and playin frisbee, illegal immigrant family picnics, or picking up gays. Unfortunately.

I live half a mile from it, and would love to be able to take my kid's out there, but every time I have, something untoward happens.

More skateparks would be awesome...the one downtown is very popular and Im sure if they built one at dolese or will rogers or trosper they be very popular as well.

Sorry you've had a bad experience with going to the parks. I too have seen people smoking pot, I've seen hispanic people having picnics (but didn't assume they were illegals) and I've seen gay people at will rogers....they're not that scary and I doubt they'd bother you...........unless you look like Brad Pitt J/k

I've lived in OKC for almost 40 years and have yet to hear of any "gay abductions" in the parks. I myself am more worried about the scary prostitutes with 3 teeth that haunt western and robinson downtown. They will actually approach you.

Daniel....what is the real reason for the fences around the picnic pavilions? any idea?

what is the real reason for the fences around the picnic pavilions? any idea?

I'm not Daniel, but I will answer.

The reason for the fences is that the larger pavilions are part of the rentals program. As such, they are only open during such times as people have them rented for picnics, parties, etc.

There are also several shelters in parks that are non-rental facilities.

When people rent a pavilion or party house, they are given a key to that area, which unlocks the fence. Crews come in between each rental to clean the space. Keeping these areas locked means the grounds crews who maintain them can keep them clean and presentable for the next renter.

During the busy season, there can be 4-5 rentals per pavilion space, per day.

For more on rentals, see this page (http://www.okc.gov/parks/rentals/index.html)of the okc.gov website.

Please see my earlier post, too, westside. In it I referenced that the current fence at the Will Rogers South pavilion will be replaced in a few years, with funding coming from the 2007 GO Bond.

For more on rentals, see this page (http://www.okc.gov/parks/rentals/index.html)of the okc.gov website.


There are no rates for room rental at the Will Rogers Exhibition Center on that site. Do you know what the prices are?

The "infested brambles" ah yes...Thats one of the things I like most about Dolese park...where else in the city can you feel like you're out in the wilderness. I've played their probably 50 times and have yet to get any kind of poision.

Westsidesooner. I am so sorry for any confusion I might have caused. My statement meant to read infested brambles of poision ivy. Living in the neighborhood just north of the park I have seen neighbors with poision ivy and the ONES I have discussed it with all said they were in the park and most have been playing frisbee golf. I myself stick to the trails since I am highly allergic to the nasty stuff. As far as poison my garden shed and medicine cabinet are full of one kind of poision or another.
After reading the post I can agree with spotting folks getting high, playing frisbee golf and even some gay activity. Please tell me how you can spot illegal immigrant familys vs other familys? I have yet to find out how to discern the difference? Liveing next to Dolese can give me some insight on the POISON IVY, perhaps if I lived closer to Will Rogers Part I might have a better understanding. We all walk in our own moccasin's

There are no rates for room rental at the Will Rogers Exhibition Center on that site. Do you know what the prices are?

See HERE (http://www.okc.gov/parks/will_rogers/rental.html).

The skateparks are a nice improvement. Wish they'd build more tho. Or add skatepark equipment to existing parks that see little or no traffic.

Will Roger's park is only good for getting high and playin frisbee, illegal immigrant family picnics, or picking up gays. Unfortunately.

I live half a mile from it, and would love to be able to take my kid's out there, but every time I have, something untoward happens.

Two more skate "courts" or "plazas" are planned for Summer 2009. One will be in South Lakes Park, the other at Route 66 Park. Neither will be quite the size or scope of the Mat Hofmann Action Sports Park, which is a specialty park, but should provide lots of fun and skating opportunities for our beginning to intermediate skaters and boarders.

I didn't realize there had been a 21 year funding gap. I just always figured OKC was too conservative (and relatively poor) to budget enough money to keep up the parks. I'm sure that's part of it too.

I have great memories as a kid of Will Rogers, especially the little "nature trail" that wound from the Rose Garden over to the playground. It appears that is gone with the new improvements.

I'm glad they are working on Will Rogers, but it seems some of the character was lost with the new construction. I haven't seen, but hope they haven't torn out the red sandstone walls and the meandering paths around the pond.

rondvu....Thanks for your reply, I didn't mean to say your post was confusing. I do play dg there (at least when the weather is nice), and just meant to say that I never got poison ivy there. And trust me, as many times as Ive thrown my disc in the brambles I should have gotten in contact with some. Maybe Im just not allergic to it...thus unaware. I'll bet there is some though.

btw....and I know my post was a little disorganized..but...I am not the one who said they saw illegal immigrants having picnics. That was someone else with an earlier post that I was refering to. I said I saw hispanic families having picnics.

I have no idea how you could tell the difference without asking them...which I did not do.

As far as the fenced in pavilions go, its not just will rogers (I have seen that one occupied quiet a bit) but also places like lake overholser (rarely used). I just think its unfortunate that something in a public park.....especially a shelter....should have to be RENTED.....since we already paid for it. But I can see where some people who dont clean up afte themselves can cause a big headache for city crews.

As a child Will Rogers was a show place. Our family would pincic there and watch the brides getting their photos taken. Jump forward 40 years

Simple matter of the park no longer being new and not enough funding to properly maintain it.

Also, it has to be said that 40 years ago the surrounding area was much nicer, before everyone started abandoning it for far North OKC and Edmond.

Parks tend to reflect the neighborhoods around them.

Westsidesooner, if you couldn't rent/reserve shelters in the parks, you couldn't plan picnics, party's, etc;.
I was very fortunate to be involved in the construction of both South Lakes and Route 66 parks, however, I hope that more improvemants can be made to older, more historical parks. One that needs major renovation is Wheeler Park on S. Western, this was the home of the first OKC Zoo, and it's located between the Oklahoma River and the New I-40 location.

Regarding the shelter rentals, the fees are extremely cheap.

As mentioned, I think the system exists more to guarantee availability than for any other reason.

You can rent shelters/pavillions in Edmond's parks and they don't have fences surrounding them.

Seems unnecessary.

I retired from the OKC Parks department in 2006, I'm very interested in the way the city parks are built and maintained, any feed back would be appreciated.

Except for Route 66 Park, I don't think OKC has built a single park since you retired not long ago. They've made a few improvements at a few parks around town, though. Why would we know more about parks than you? In fact, if I were writing a term paper on how OKC city parks are built and maintained, you would probably be just the person I'd want to talk to. All the plans for the Oklahoma River improvements, Route 66 Park, Maywood Park, and so on were already drawn up right around when you retired in 2006.

So how about it? just kidding.

Spartan, my main purpose for this thread is to get as many people talking about "OUR" park system as possibile, in turn, maybe that will encourage more to get involved and hopefully encourage more and desperately needed funding.

Something citizens may find interesting:

The OKC Parks Department is resonpsibile for maintaing almost 7,000 acres, less than 1/2 of the 7,000 acres is actually park property, the majority are center medians, right-of-ways, drainage areas, and land idenitified as misc.
Listed are some areas the Parks Department Maintains that most people are not aware of:
Right-of-Ways and Center Medians along State Highways located within OKC limits (Highway 4, Highway 152, Highway 66, Highway 74, Highway 77, etc).
Areas along the Bricktown Canal and Oklahoma River
Areas around Lakes Overholser, Draper and Hefner.
Police / Fire Training Center on Portland
Almost all center medians in the OKC area, Shields, May Ave, Meridian, NW 10th, etc;
The grounds at City Hall, Civic Center, all Police Stations (main and sub)

All of this in addtion to being responsiblie for any calls re: veiw obstructions that citizens call in.

So the city is maintaining an area of aproximately 2% of its total area (based on the city being 607 sq. miles) and if you take out the medians it goes down to 1%. That seems to me to be a very low amount of land that is being directed toward parks. Again really great city parks bring all types of public activity together. The Oklahoma River may have many acers but its is realitive narrow in depth which is going to limit the amount of uses and have a effect of spreading them out over a very lineal format. The uses need to be more concentric. Allowing families to be able to get park and then be able to go to what ever use (ball field, frisbee field, running trail, etc.) without having to create a master transportation plan. But alas THATS a whole other issue.

wrt the illegal immigrant picnics at Will Rogers: Because there are several hispanic families near my home, one being an immediate neighbor. They told me as much, and even said it's well known that that is where a lot of their family and friends (who are/were here illegally) went to have gatherings of some sort or another. Since winter time has come, I haven't been back out there at all. During this period, I understand there has been a huge migration south among many illegals and their families, so I suspect the number has dropped somewhat.

My neighbor also told me that the pool there is also a favorite spot among his "illegally here familia and homey's". Quote.

The gays stare while cruising and parking, I'm no Brad Pitt, but I've been approached several times at the duck pond while feeding ducks with my children, and I've seen people smoking joints in the open, and hitting glassware in their cars.

It really pisses me off, because it is within bike distance from my house. Just one more reason my house is for sale. :( I grew up at that park. Some of my earliest childhood memories include looking for crawdad's in the creek there. You will find syringes and other paraphanalia around the creek these days. Along with gang graffitti.

-------------------

I actually put a sub bid for work on the Route66 skatepark construction last year. Downey Construction tells me that it will be completed sometime in March or April. Aughta be cool! FritterGirl, where is south Lakes?

Ooklahoma City has 113 parks, most of them are small, neighborhood parks, parks of 2 acres or less. The smallest is Mark Twain Park--.1 acre and the biggest is South Lakes Park--158 acres (however, of the 158 acres, almost 1/2 is soccerfields and they are maintained and operated bu the S. Lakes Soccer Club.
I think the City needs to move away from building small neighborhood parks and build more large, Regional Parks like Southlakes, Route 66, Earlywine, Will Rogers, Woodson, etrc;.

Ooklahoma City has 113 parks, most of them are small, neighborhood parks, parks of 2 acres or less. The smallest is Mark Twain Park--.1 acre and the biggest is South Lakes Park--158 acres (however, of the 158 acres, almost 1/2 is soccerfields and they are maintained and operated bu the S. Lakes Soccer Club.
I think the City needs to move away from building small neighborhood parks and build more large, Regional Parks like Southlakes, Route 66, Earlywine, Will Rogers, Woodson, etrc;.

Oklahoma City has 142 parks. And while it is true that most are smaller, neighborhood parks, it is important to remember that the bulk of these parks have been part of the parks system for many, many years. Emphasis now is on the building and capital improvement of larger regional parks such as South Lakes, Wiley Post, Route 66, Earlywine and the like, including Will Rogers, although it is much smaller in comparison.

The department is NOT currently building smaller neighborhood parks.

Edit:As for SouthLakes Soccer Club, they are a tremendous partner of the City's. Having 16 quality soccer fields at a place such as SouthLakes helps the Parks Department take a role in the economic development of our community. There were originally about 11 soccer fields built there. An additional seven fields were built at the request of the soccer club, when they had the opportunity to host a multi-state, regional tournament in OKC. The result? Although the tournament took place during a rainy, rainy June, over 10,000 players, coaches and family members attended the week-long tournament, with a CVB-estimated $10 million impact on the economy.

It's with these kinds of things in mind, also taking into consideration the needs of our smaller parks, that the Park Department is developing much of the projects that are in the current bond issue.


Most of the neighborhood parks currently in existence have been with the Parks Department for many, many years. The Department isworking to upgrade playground equipment in these parks, but there is no plant to build more of these parks themselves.

I don't recall there being that many parks, and I got the count of 113 from the OKC Parks Department web site. No one said they were building small neighborhood parks, they are a maintenace drain and would be better served if they could be donated to neighborhoods or adopted.

I agree, the S. Lakes soccer fields are a nice addition to S. OKC, and the S. Lakes Soccer Club is a great partner, the soccer fields are for the exclusive use of the soccer club, with the exception of the fields on the east side of the park which can be used by the general public if not in use by the soccer club. While the soccer club pay's for much of the maintenance, the city still spends a considerable amount (counting material and manpower).

So the city is maintaining an area of aproximately 2% of its total area (based on the city being 607 sq. miles) and if you take out the medians it goes down to 1%. That seems to me to be a very low amount of land that is being directed toward parks.

Yeah, but we can't even afford to maintain the parks we have. I think what drives the overall percentage up for a lot of cities is (1) they are much smaller in land area, and (2) many of them have a large wilderness park or two, such as L.A.'s Griffith Park, most of which is undeveloped. I wish we had a park like that.

One issue with wilderness parks is the type of wildlife they can attract. Think Trospers, only with a bit move cover for the uncovered.

I didnt mean to get off on the cost of the shelters as being a problem...its not. What bugs me is the asthetics of the chain link fences. They seem to be sending a message about your safety, kinda like burglar bars on a house. That and it would be nice for park users to be able to use the shelters during a sudden rainstorm when the shelters are otherwise not being used.

Route 66 park they did a really nice job on. Although the observation tower has never been open while I was there. It'll really be nice in a few years when some of the new trees at the park begin to mature, much like is starting to happen on the east shore of Hefner.

As long as we're talking about OKC's park space being so limited I'll bring up something I mentioned in other threads. My plan....when funding becomes available of course, would be to revitalize the string of pearls plan. Connecting the Oklahoma river downtown with the trails project and Route 66 park thru a series of parks and small damed lakes. The dump on sw15th could be turned into something like Mount Trashmore Park - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Trashmore). The dump is tall enough now we could even use it as a ski slope in the winter. It would be wonderful someday to have a series of trails (bike, nautre. walking), river lakes, parks, hotels, an ampitheatre, skateparks, and restaurants all the way from downtown to lake overholser to Lake Hefner.

If your gonna dream.....dream big.

Route 66 Park is a huge improvement to the west side of Lake Overholser, the only time the Tower is open is when someone rents it and/or the shelter, it would be nice if it could be left open, but it would only take a day or two before the vandals found it. The three small lakes at Route 66 are man made, at South Lakes Park (built just before Route 66), the two lakes are natural and like Route 66, have been stocked for fishing.

I agree with you about the chain link fences being unatractive, but they are a necessary evil, somone mentioned they were to help for shelter rentals, however, they were orignally installed to prevent vandilisim.

I also agree with you about the String of Pearls, they could connect the Oklahoma River with Lake Overholser via walking/jogging/biking trails.

oops, not being familiar with the moderation of the board, I jumped the gun on a follow up post. Please disregard.

DaveSkater--South Lakes Park is at SW 119th and Meridian

Hmm. South of the airport then. Wow, I had no idea anything was going on back there. Thanks

The City has done a great job on building up the River walk along the Oklahoma River with jogging routs and bout rides including the dams.

I really enjoyed my 28 years working for the City of OKC Parks Department, especially the last 6--7 years when, thanks to bond issue money, the departmenat was able to buy land, build new parks and renovate established parks. The addition of S. Lakes to the Southside has really been a huge benefit to the city, since it's completion, one new housing addtion has started (with several homes completed) and there are more additions planned. One additional benefit is that S. Lakes has taken some of the use from Earlywine which was very heavily used and over crowded.

S. Lakes has 2 fishing ponds, 2 basketball courts, a 1 1/4 mile, jogging/walking trail, a large playground, a party house and shelters that can be reserved for picnis, reunions, etc. There is also a large soccer complex that's operated by the South Lakes Soccer Club, the fields are irrigated and one is lighted. Future plans inclued a skate park (street course in planning stages now), additonal plans/dreams/wishes may include some type of nature area.

Guy have we been to the same park along the Oklahoma River? Granted there are paths on both sides of the river, but very few points with great distance between them to be able to cross from one side to the other without being put into traffics path. There is not much more than the paths at this time. Also there was great hooplah on all the trees that had been planted originally. How many of them need to be replaced at this point due to ice, vandalism, drought, etc. Also it looks like there were inferstructure items of sprinklers and possible lighting that has never been used or at this point now vandelized.

One thing that could add to the river trails would be those fitness equipment clusters that are every few hundred feet and have you do a different activity. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? I haven't seen any OKC park with them but I remember them in Utah and in Dallas.

brandt park in Norman aka Duck Pond, used to have some of those over on the east side, near the tracks. Not certain if they're still up or not.

One thing that could add to the river trails would be those fitness equipment clusters that are every few hundred feet and have you do a different activity. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? I haven't seen any OKC park with them but I remember them in Utah and in Dallas.

Hafer Park in Edmond had them (may still do).

One thing that could add to the river trails would be those fitness equipment clusters that are every few hundred feet and have you do a different activity. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? I haven't seen any OKC park with them but I remember them in Utah and in Dallas.

This was almost a reality last year. I suspect we will see some fitness equipment on the river within the next few years if not sooner.

I went and skated the Hoffman Action park on the river today, and was thinking the same thing. If pull up stations and other similar excersise equipment were set up every so many 100 yards, that would be so cool. Norman is considering dismantling their current skatepark and building a new one, and taking the existing skatepark equipment and spreading it around the area, making it similar to what you're talking about here. Distance skate, half pipe, distance skate, grind rail, distance skate, hubba ramps....etc.

Should be awesome if it ever flies.

If you have anything you would like to see added to a park/location, go to the City's web site and send the Councilman and/or Mayor an email, most of them will respond, and if enough ask for something, it may get consideration.

OKC.gov

Guy have we been to the same park along the Oklahoma River? Granted there are paths on both sides of the river, but very few points with great distance between them to be able to cross from one side to the other without being put into traffics path. There is not much more than the paths at this time. Also there was great hooplah on all the trees that had been planted originally. How many of them need to be replaced at this point due to ice, vandalism, drought, etc. Also it looks like there were inferstructure items of sprinklers and possible lighting that has never been used or at this point now vandelized.

I simply stated that the city made great improvements on the River compared to how looked just a few years ago.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/oklahoma%20river/northcanadianokc_1991.jpg

I don't what you mean by few points with great distance between them this map shows the distance of the Oklahoma River Trails.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49/DougLoudenback/oklahoma%20river/rivertrailswest.gif

danielf1935, in your latter days with the parks, were you aware of the plans at Draper? I see lots of road improvements along the north end in the last two years, but also lots of barricades, no motorized vehicle signs, etc. I presume they are not building wide asphalt horse trails, but remain uncertain of the overall plan.

danielf1935, in your latter days with the parks, were you aware of the plans at Draper? I see lots of road improvements along the north end in the last two years, but also lots of barricades, no motorized vehicle signs, etc. I presume they are not building wide asphalt horse trails, but remain uncertain of the overall plan.

Kevin,

Have you been out there lately? The department just completed and opened two new recreation areas along the North Shore area.

Recreation Area #1 includes a handicapped-accessible fishing pier, a boat ramp, large picnic pavilion and sand volleyball course. There is also ample parking and green space here.

Recreation Area #2 also includes a large picnic pavilion, in addition to several smaller picnic areas tucked into the woods, plus a children's playground.

The two areas are about 1/4-mile from one another, and both offer beautiful views of Lake Draper.

If you haven't been by lately, I'd strongly encourage you to go check these areas out. They will definitely be a big hit come summer.

Kevin,

Have you been out there lately? The department just completed and opened two new recreation areas along the North Shore area.

Recreation Area #1 includes a handicapped-accessible fishing pier, a boat ramp, large picnic pavilion and sand volleyball course. There is also ample parking and green space here.

Recreation Area #2 also includes a large picnic pavilion, in addition to several smaller picnic areas tucked into the woods, plus a children's playground.

The two areas are about 1/4-mile from one another, and both offer beautiful views of Lake Draper.

If you haven't been by lately, I'd strongly encourage you to go check these areas out. They will definitely be a big hit come summer.


FritterGirl's description of this area is dead on, very nice addition to the area, something that has been needed for a long time.

I hope everyone that reads the post's on this thread passes the information to their family and friends, the OKC Parks Department has done several things is the past few years to improve the quality of life for it's citizens.
I also feel that this is just the beginning, with the success of MAP's, Bond Issues and the soon to be "Core to Shore", the future of the Park System in OKC is very exciting.

I wish they'd do something with Red Andews park in MidTown, it's basically a daycare for the homeless.

Sounds like the North shore area's finally been unbarred then. It's been a few weeks since I last checked. Some out of town fam issues have caused me to limit my run around time lately, and I wasn't aware of the change.

Sounds like I have some exploring to do after the weekend travels conclude.

Check out the mtn bike park while you are there. Definitely a lot a fun.

Is it the same mnt bike park that's been there at Meridian and Hefner for some time? The trails? Or is there a new one somewhere?

edit: OH Draper! Cool. I'll have to check that out!

Is it the same mnt bike park that's been there at Meridian and Hefner for some time? The trails? Or is there a new one somewhere?

edit: OH Draper! Cool. I'll have to check that out!

The one at Draper is open, but still in the development stage, has ton's of potential. A group I ride with are waiting for the OK from the City to plan/schedule a few work days this spring and summer to help develop more trails.

I liked the job they did on the Route 66 park these pictures where took over a year go so they might have added to it since then.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1182/1205103567_288cbc3f2a_m.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1019/1205977938_69a536411f_m.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1060/1205975576_214feec8d2_m.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1223/1205970638_262237b6cc_m.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1300/1205971148_0872c64901_m.jpg

We have a jewel of a park in our city with Will Rogers. We lack smaller parks, especially in newer additions.

I wish they'd do something with Red Andews park in MidTown, it's basically a daycare for the homeless.

Metro, I agree, the only thing this park has going for it is the gym, hopefully recent improvements to this area will carry over to the park.

If you live/work in this area, incourage everyone you know to write the Mayor, Council, and Parks Department. Their emails are listed on the City's website, OKC.gov

We have a jewel of a park in our city with Will Rogers. We lack smaller parks, especially in newer additions.

I hate to disagree, but we have more small neighborhood parks then we need, the trend has moved to larger, regional parks. The small parks are under used and don't/can't offer things the public desires. (large play areas, fishing ponds, spraygrounds, picnic shelters, etc.)

Mike just what we need. More postage stamps for parks that have nothing but grass that the dogs have _hit on. And who knows when they have last been mowed or trash picked up.