Park #31: Barack Recreation Center - Columbus

   Ah, a nice visit to a place down Parsons Avenue, "The Gateway to the South". Kinda more like The Gateway to Columbus' Ass. This whole area is full of historic old buildings that have seen better times/fallen into disrepair. This trip was kinda a get in, get out type trip as I felt out of sorts in this part of town. That said, there are of course good families there as well, and hopefully 20 years on down the road things will turn around there as there are some plans to improve the district. Early signs of this can be seen at Parsons & Livingston where the massive new-ish Childrens Hospital buildings went up over the summer. We shall see..

  Took these during the fall season last year. Unfortunately, the interior of the building seemed to be under construction, as I was asked when I went to look around/photograph the inside if I was with the architects. I was/am not, so I hope to return there soon to take pictures on the inside, as this visit felt incomplete just taking outdoor pics of the place.

Ewww, yuck. I assume these will be torn down, as the City of Columbus has earmarked millions of dollars to tear down eyesores like these in this part of town. They look like sturdy buildings, and I wish they could be preserved I guess, but the wrong element took them over.

Always a slightly unsettling sign when a massive cop shop is next door.

According to http://parks.columbus.gov/BarackCenter.aspx,

    "Barack Community Recreation Center has been awarded the 2012-2013 "Take Me Fishing" Grant! The National Recreation and Parks Association (NRPA) has awarded the grant funds to our own Barack Community Recreation Center to create, sustain or expand their current boating and fishing programs!"

Thats cool but a bit odd, as there are no lakes in sight of the place. Hmm.

Park #30: Bank One Greenway - Westerville

   This is not really a park, per say, but a path along Alum Creek that connects Alum Creek Park South and Alum Creek Park (north), and Astronaut Grove in Westerville. These photos were outtakes from those parks posts as I realized later that I had already been to Bank One Greenway although the paved bike hike trail had not been marked as such. These were taken roughly at the end of Summer last year which is why you'll see a funky picture of me on the bike in shorts. Its obvious that Westervillians love this trail in good weather, as it was pretty busy on this Saturday afternoon I was there. It was also obvious to me that Westerville's former reputation as "The Dry Capitol of the World" was still somewhat in effect as many of the gas stations where I attempted to buy a 40oz didn't sell beer at all, and Kroger seemed to only sell 6packs.

   The cool thing about this trail is the outsider art style things attached to many of the telephone poles by Alum Creek. I never did find out the story behind them.

 

This makes me want to go swimming, ice skating, boating, wading, fishing AND other!

YOURS TRULY, with out of alignment handlebars from when a car clipped me a few days previous :/