Park #32: Barnett Recreation Center/Park - Eastmoor

     Holy moly, I took these pictures a few days over 8 years ago. I never intended to stop this blog but as it does, life got in the way. Next thing you know, like Floyd sang, "And one day you'll find/Ten years has got behind you". I had uploaded these on April Fools Day 2015, the day I took them, or thereabouts, but just got around to commenting on them 4/17/23.

Located just southeast of the shady area of James & E Main, Barnett Rd appears to be far enough away that I didn't feel uncomfortable walking around at the time. I don't there'd be any chance I'd check out this bar however. Just out of curiosity I just looked up if they were still in business since the pandemic wiped out some Mom & Pop places. Seems like they made it through.

Nice sunny day. Can't remember what the temperature was like 8 years ago. I remember it was nice enough at least to have a picnic of bologna sandwiches.

Walking around the rec center.

Picnic spot. I've always been a sucker for pine trees.

Man, these mostly boarded up apartment buildings looked dodgy. They get a whopping 1.8 stars out of 5 on google reviews. NBC4 from a year ago gives a good summary of the place shortly after it went into receivership https://www.nbc4i.com/news/local-news/columbus/colonial-village-the-big-flip/

Loop trail around the park.

When I visit a park with a rec center, I do want to go inside to take pics. But inevitably it would be full of people; I'd feel strange taking pictures of total strangers - at the least it would feel awkward, at most an invasion of privacy. It's one thing to take a picture from afar of a few pavilions of folks grilling out or something. I think the only time I'd feel alright taking pictures of strangers is if I was next to them at a fantastic concert and chatting with them the whole show having a blast.

The local library branch in the area of the park. CBus libraries have rebuilt a bunch of their branches, but looks like in 2023 this one is same as it ever was.

     So one of the Ten Commandments of this blog was always that I never look up any details of the next park I'd be photographing besides the name. Battelle Darby Metropark, our largest at over 7000 acres, was the one alphabetically after Barnett. I had been to B-D a few times in the '90s and knew it would take maybe a whole week to photograph the whole park. That's another reason I started dragging my feet on this blog, knowing how much walking it would take since I don't have a car. Well, in the last couple years they added a pretty cool very primitive backpacking camping trail which I've camped at twice. So I finally decided to tackle going out there. I decided since the map of B-D lists differently named areas of the park, I would visit an area at a time to make it more manageable. Thus the next entry...

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 #21: Anheuser Busch Sports Park - Columbus

     Just off Olentangy River road is this sprawling sports complex of baseball fields, a couple soccer fields & basketball courts and an indoor cookie-cutter type complex of the half moon variety that seem to be everywhere in Ohio. This is a huge place, no doubt rocking all weekend long during the summer. I had meant to sneak in a Budweiser to drink while I was at this place, but I forgot. Seen as how Anheuser-Busch has a plant here in Columbus, I should have just phoned them up and had them deliver it to me.

I've never been in one of these things, and I wouldn't this day either as they were doing some sort of construction on it.

Pretty much what you would expect, only bigger (@50 acres).

Park #17: American Addition Park - Columbus

   Urban boonies was the only thought that came to mind when I set foot in American Addition. After stepping off the bus at around 7 something in the AM, I was greeted by the sound of a rooster crowing. Very weird. As I walked around the neighborhood, It seemed somewhat abandoned. Not abandoned like my part of town where there are so many boarded up historic homes (1/10th, 1/20th of the buildings maybe?) with crack dealer slits cut in the wood covering the windows. It just seemed like a chunk of buildings were either never there or were never built. Something wasn't making sense. It was not a huge subdivision, and yes it was across from a dump and there were railroad tracks to the south and west, but it seemed there was too much space, too much... nothing???

  So those were my thoughts as I walked towards the park, which was a rather unremarkable pocket park compared with the strange vibe its neighborhood was giving off. I lost the original pics along when my phone vanished, but I've taken a new set since.

This iconic water tower sits a couple blocks away from American Addition.

As does this funky building, which I thought was piles of rocks or something when I originally saw it from a distance on the bus.

This lies at the entrance to the community. Its a very cute place and on that day, a group was putting some work in. Again, I am simply a sucker for gazebos.

HE stands guard

I swear I've seen this sculpture before. Any ideas? It looks really familiar.

   Some of my questions about this place were answered after I googled it after taking the original set of pics. The history of American Addition explains that it is the oldest black community in Ohio and most of the homes were torn down long ago. Its a mind blowing read and spawns some hope for those still there.

   I talked to one lady, who turned out to be Marie Moreland-Short from the Dispatch Story. She was a little hesitant to talk since I was some random stranger perhaps seeming nosy, but we ended up having a nice conversation. She had things to do anyway since the center pictured below was bustling with children. I wished her luck and told her she has a community to be proud of.

This was why I originally got that "urban boonies" vibe.

A very average park in a rather extraordinary place.

Pretty large, maybe a bit larger than a football field.

Hope blooms again

For HIGHLY recommended further info on this part of town, I suggest these documentaries which tell their story with interviews with some of the original residents. Very cool. They are  here and here.