Monday, July 18, 2011
Phillips Green Hills Park: A Review
Posted by Betsy Phillips on Mon, Jul 18, 2011 at 6:14 AM
Location: On Lone Oak, beyond Lipscomb
Size of Park: In-town large
Crowds: Good
Approximate Age of Patrons: Mostly adults
Topics of Conversation: Soccer talk
Stray Dogs Seen: None
Types of Vehicles in Parking Lots: All kinds
Perceived Safety: High
Number of Gunshots Heard: High None
Dog Friendliness: High
Number of pitbulls sighted: Just mine
Accessibility: OK
Incorporation of Local History: None
Recommended Patrons: Soccer players, people who like playground equipment, someone with a lawn mower
The playground equipment is separated into two zones: There's a jungle gym with slide and stuff next to the swing set up on a slight hill, and closer to the tennis courts there's the most darling little climbing wall accompanied by this weird pyramid web thing sure to delight tiny aspiring Spider Men.
We saw plenty of people with dogs, though everyone was taking the leash law seriously, which was nice. While we were there, I noted that people arriving by vehicle seemed either to be soccer players or people with families. Lone dog-walkers seemed primarily to be coming in from the neighborhood.
In my mind, I tend to make a distinction between true neighborhood parks, designed to be used primarily by the people who live around them, and city parks, designed to be used by everyone. But I think Green Hills Park is somehow a neighborhood city park — well-used by people within walking distance and easily accessible and useable by people from all over town, should they want to go there for, say, the web thingy or to play soccer or watch a ball game.
But the tallest swaths of grass aren't large enough to make it a danger for people with small children or anything. So don't let that dissuade you. This is a nice park and a good example of what our parks system does right.
Comments (10)
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My bet on the mowing -- Neighborhood folks, or users of the soccer fields are mowing that area so it is more usable and the rest is being mowed by Metro on a less frequent basis.
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I'm guessing the gunshots remark is an error, that somehow slipped by her, ahem, otherwise impeccable editor!
Oh, cripes. Sorry guys, it's taking me a little bit to get back in the swing of things after vacation. I heard NO gunshots at the park and felt very safe there.
Anon, I considered that, but I'm not sure it explains the third level of grass, the highest. Is Metro just mowing in an impressionistic manner, making grass shorter where they think it will look good, leaving it long in places to add ambiance? Or maybe someone's trimmer jammed and they figured they'd catch it next month or something.
I am curious what grass seed they use, though, as it was very soft and pleasant to walk on.
The post has been changed to fix the "Gunshots" error. Apologies to Green Hills residents if we momentarily caused a dip in property values!
That would be just my luck to single-handedly accidentally ruin Green Hills. Do they send out angry mobs to tar and feather people or is that considered gauche?
