Quote:
Originally Posted by prelude91
I could not disagree with this more. Do we really want the middle of Lincoln Park to have large crowds? Lincoln Park is very far from perfect (there are way too many surface lots) but what I love about it is having very few people around, and little commercialization.
I think we need to make a distinction between a park like Lincoln Park and a park like Bryant Park, one should be mostly nature with not a lot of people, the other is more like a square which should be vibrant with Cafe's etc.
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If you look at an aerial of Lincoln Park, there is actually very little unprogrammed open space now, and most of it is East of LSD and north of the golf course.
The area south of Belmont Harbor is heavily used and has the zoo, Diversey Harbor, sport fields, N. Ave Boathouse, several museums, Brauer Cafe, etc.
There is rarely a time when any remaining open space isn't filled with people and dogs.
The same can be said for Grant Park. I keep reading on here how there is vast open space, but Hutchinson Field is full of baseball fields that are permitted from sunrise to sunset every weekend during the summer. The areas around Buckingham Fountain are all planted with formal gardens + paths (not to mention 4 concession stands with restrooms). Patrillo Band shell has a large open lawn, but that isn't exactly "unprogrammed" space. Then you have Millenium Park + Maggie Daley Park. The only unprogrammed natural spaces in Grant Park are really just at the edges and/or slivers of green between LSD and the harbor.
Northerly Island is probably the most prominent unprogrammed natural space we have, and half of it is occupied by a concert venue/surface parking lot.