When I think of “urban park” i think of Central Park in NY or Centennial Park in Atlanta that don’t have parking lots. You sort of wander into them as you walk through downtown urban areas and suddenly “Whoa what a nice park.”
In my view, our “urban parks” in Raleigh are Moore Square and Nash Square. Not Chavis or Pullen or Dix which are more destination parks with most people arriving by, well let’s just say most didn’t walk there. I know some folks hyperventilate at the fact so many people drive to everything in the Triangle (just as the NYC Covid-refugee girl who had no idea what she was getting into when she moved here LOL).
Dix is huge and definitely “near” but not IN downtown. Most of Dix is every bit as far away as Downtown South will ever be, and there was lots of talk on here that DTS is “not downtown.” (Assuming it ever gets built). Sure the CLOSEST FRONT GATE is downtown adjacent, but i wouldn’t say that means the park is downtown at all.
Pullen is right off a busy thoroughfare. Umstead is a huge state park nestled between a freeway, a very busy medium-large commercial service airport, and a highway. I wish we had a centennial type of park situation but we have to make what we have work somehow. And I don’t think that includes gimmicks like charilifts or gondolas.
This idea would be a maintenance hassle for sure, but it’d be cool if somehow (since DIx is all uphill from the entrance closest to downtown) they did something like san diego zoo has, which is a very long uphill moving sidewalk (like the kind that are always breaking down at RDU). They have much better year-round weather at San Diego of course, but anything to draw people into and up the hill to encourage walkability by more people would be great. And aside from my concerns about maintenance, such a system is bound to be much less expense than a gondola. No staft for loading/unloading required to be paid or to show up; just maintenance. Probably have to cover it due all the 
branches and acorns that’d be falling on it.