For a good city, a good park is a must

Queensbury has stunning wild parks

With time to do it, Bella and I like to wander around in parks and downtowns, window-shopping, people-watching and, where it’s allowed, going in with our dog, Ringo, to sit down and have a coffee or hot chocolate.

I’m spending more time exploring the area now than I ever have before. Even when I was working at the Post-Star and traveled places for stories, I was going to specific locations — like a town hall or someone’s house — not visiting a community and browsing its streets.

The importance of parks and plazas and other centrally located public gathering places has impressed itself on me during our wanderings. For a downtown to come alive, it needs spots where people can gather.

Glens Falls has the ideal gathering spot in City Park. It’s right in the middle of the city, next to Crandall Library, City Hall and the Lower Adirondack Regional Arts Council, and it’s big enough to host concerts and art fairs but small enough to be integrated into downtown. It’s not a grassy limb of the city but its natural heart.

Hudson Falls has Juckett Park, a pleasant spot that is, unfortunately, surrounded by roads heavy with traffic. The park is, thus, a hard-to-reach island, and I can’t imagine how this could change (unless building owners across the street put in giant slides from their roofs to the park’s lawn).

Juckett Park in Hudson Falls sits on an island surrounded by traffic.

Saratoga Springs has Congress Park, but it’s down on the south end of downtown, and too big. You don’t walk through Congress Park, you walk into it, intending to spend time there. Most people spend their time in Saratoga Springs walking up and down Broadway and the side streets, checking out the cornucopia of shops. But when it’s time to hang out, there’s no central park or plaza — you have to schlep your way to Congress Park, which, despite bordering on Broadway, is hidden by its downhill location.

Big crowds turned out on a recent Saturday in Saratoga Springs, lining the sidewalks for the city’s Chowder Fest.

Washington Park in Albany is fabulous and better than the city around it. Every time I go to Albany, I think about how great it could be and should be as the capital of New York. But instead, it feels flat, lacking in verve and declining. I suppose New York City claims all the hectic urban vitality in the state for itself. Last time I criticized Albany, a few readers defended it, so maybe its charms are subtle, and I haven’t spent enough time there to appreciate them.

Washington Park in Albany is gorgeous.

Wild walk

Speaking of parks, no place I’ve been to beats Queensbury for natural parks. We’ve been a couple of times recently to Hudson Pointe Nature Preserve, off Corinth Road and up above the Hudson River on a bluff. It’s a dramatic, wild place at the edge of one of the suburban subdivisions that populate the town. On Tuesday, we walked along the bluff for half a mile or so, then curved back toward the parking lot. In the woods about 15 feet off the trail, we spotted this barred owl standing on a branch with his back to us. We tiptoed down the trail to get a side view of the owl, who remained motionless the whole time.

A big barred owl stands on a branch Tuesday in Hudson Pointe Nature Preserve, Queensbury.