As the Cork city is expanding, I feel the city should be become more ambitious for its future. We are the fastest growing city in the country and I believe the time is ripe to start planning an urban park for Cork today.
Across the globe, cities have large famous parks. Hyde Park in London, Phoenix Park in Dublin and Central Park in New York city.
Most urban parks across Europe serve multiple functions: They are tourist attractions; a place for city residents to enjoy nature; allows nature to have a presence in the city and provide a large amenity that can accommodate a large percentage of the city’s population.
By building a large urban park, we can design it from ground up. Have it built with areas for public gatherings; with adequate car park spaces and connected to public transport to allow people to visit with ease.
By planning and designing the urban park now we will have the advantage of designing a truly modern urban park. We can have large scale playgrounds, concert areas, outdoor gazebos that allow for outdoor plays/music concerts and events that are aimed at up and coming bands or theatre groups We could design the paths so that they are well lit and in easy access to car parks. We can have cycle lanes and use it for cycle races and marathons.
While we have parks in the city that fulfil some of the above functions, this new urban park would fulfil all of the functions on a larger scale that can be planned to take into account of our growing population with the advantage of having space to accommodate more activities.
It would have an added benefit of helping nature survive and provide a place for animals to thrive.