Where Gainesville's next park should be
Gainesville has done a wonderful job building flagship parks to the north, west, and east, but the southwest corner has been neglected for too long
Gainesville has some truly great parks. I was lucky enough to visit Northside Park, up near where 34th Blvd and 13th St meet. The park designers nailed it here, with multiple tennis courts, bocce ball courts (!!!), nice trails, plenty of seating and shade, and a playground with enough surprises to hold a kid’s attention for hours.
In the west side of town, the renovated Albert “Ray” Massey (Westside) Park is damn near an ideal park for a small city with walking paths, multiple ball courts and fields, a pool, and a masterpiece of a playground. The Parks, Recreation, & Cultural Affairs Department really outdid themselves on that one. West Gainesville has also long enjoyed a number of great parks beyond Massey Park.
Depot Park downtown is worthy of its status as a flagship park in Gainesville. Again, the Parks, Recreation, & Cultural Affairs Department did a great job in building a park big enough to host festivals while remaining accessible enough for a family to enjoy a lazy Saturday afternoon in.
Even the East Gainesville, long neglected on a lot of fronts, has a wealth of high quality parks with Fred Cone, Tom Petty, Smokey Bear, Unity Park, and T.B. McPherson among others serving their neighborhoods well. The city recently celebrated adding the newly opened Lincoln Yards Park to the east side of town.
Somehow, every part of Gainesville is covered with great areas to gather except one of the most densely populated areas of town. So here I echo a question I heard a while back from Commissioner Casey Willits: where are the active parks for the southwest corner of Gainesville?
When Commissioner Willits first told me about the lack of parks south of Archer Road, I had a difficult time believing him. I mean, that can’t be right….right? There’s parks everywhere in Gainesville and there sure are a lot of people living in that southwest corner of the city. I mentioned Squirrel Ridge Park, a great space on Williston Road near 441, and Willits corrected me by pointing out that it is technically a county park outside of the city limits. Great park, but not a Gainesville one. Fair point.
Well there is one park technically in that southwest corner, and it is a very good park but it is on the edge of the southwest, so far east, most people might not think of it as SW Gainesville. Bivens Arm Nature Park is a great park to lose yourself in for a few hours. But it’s also right on the east/west border and far from the densely populated areas of SW Gainesville. And yes, Cora P. Roberson is also technically a southwest park, but it right near downtown, just down the road from Depot Park. Cora P. Roberson is also a very good park. Gainesville has this parks thing down pat.
What I’m thinking about, and what I believe Commissioner Willits was referring to was the area of Gainesville bordered by Archer Road to the north, I-75 to the west, Williston Road to the south, and SW 13h Street to the east.
I frequently use this space to call for Gainesville to make it easier to build homes and businesses and to make it easier to build walkable communities that raise the quality of life in neighborhoods. Nearby parks too substantially raise the quality of life. Parks are an essential part of neighborhoods. And the neighborhoods in the southwest corner of Gainesville deserve some great parks, the kind we know Gainesville can build because the city has done it literally everywhere else.