Yeah, those are the sort of things that I used to use as a kid growing up in California. I especially loved those manual merry-go-rounds! I could play on that for hours. I have “memories” of burning my legs on slides like that under the relentless California Sun! LOL.
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Those merry go rounds used to make me dizzy AF.
We’d push and run to get it up to max speed, hop on and hold on for dear life. Winner was the last one standing on it that didn’t get flung off.
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The amount of online bitching (for both parks) about hot metal slides… SMH come on, we survived the 70s playgrounds that were around for decades. It’s just more of a challenge.
Also, Leo, tell your daughter I said she’s wrong.
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She said, “That’s a skibidi Ohio thing to say!”
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Completely agreed. The Gibson playplace looks very sterile. What are the kids supposed to actually play on? Needs more 3 dimensionality. I feel like I’m not “getting it”.
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Everyone has their own opinion, but I’m not sure how you see the above video or pictures and think it looks sterile or lacks dimensionality. There’s multiple levels and entries and things to play on in every area. What are you looking for? There’s a model Yates Mill that kids can experiment with in addition to all the slides and swings and play sets.
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But are there monkey bars? That’s make-or-break according to our internal focus group (n=1).
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This Play Park Is a BIG DEAL David Meeker says "We’re really excited about Dix Park coming in and I feel like people in Raleigh don’t really know how big of a deal the playground is going to be over there.”
The $72 million Gipson Play Plaza set to open this spring is a watershed moment. The play plaza will include climbing towers, a playground, a picnic grove, a waterfall and more, with the entrance to its 18.5 acres on Lake Wheeler Road.
Dix Park saw 618,000 visitors between July 2023 and June 2024, according to the City of Raleigh’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources. The city projects the addition of the plaza will translate to more than 1 million visitors a year. Residential developments around Dix Park could reach nearly $2 billion. Here’s today’s full biz journal story - https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2025/04/18/dix-park-raleigh-development-gipson-play-plaza.html
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Wouldn’t be surprised if one eventually happens. Downtown Cary has sip and stroll along with the bar at the park.
I waited about a year before I went to Cary park. I’m sure I’ll probably bike here before a year.
We rode that way on the Crank Arm Wednesday night bike ride this week. It was a really cool park.
This is also what I hoped would have happened at NC Museum of Art instead of the new office building. I would love to live next to NC Museum of Art park. It’s a great place to go. Currently my must haves for apartment shopping have been to live next to the greenway and within biking distance of work.
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Plans like this are so tone deaf.
They don’t take into account the diversity of desires and opinions of all the people who actually OWN these properties.
The sole purpose for this type of study is to Suggest which zoning types and infrastructure improvements will be needed to meet the future demand for housing, office, commercial, mixed-use space in this area in the near future.
Per usual, property owners have the option whether or not to sell their property, just like the businesses once located where The Row and The Weld now sit.
Cities need to grow and evolve. Planning for that growth helps to alleviate some of the problems associated with growth. Going into the future blindly without trying to predict future needs is a failed strategy for a city.
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Drove through Dix yesterday and it’s basically impossible to get close enough to the playground to actually see most of it. Boo. Anyways, took the classic pic while I was there.
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I know you were dying to get in and do a comparison between the BEST park in the whatever and the LARGEST park in the SE. But…no jumping the line. You will have the wait. Just like the rest of us mere non-royals.
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My point is this: the entire area in the study is going to be majorly redeveloped, but it will take decades. Putting plans like this on the table, in my experience, hamstrings future developers from responding to actual market needs and conditions in real time.
A great example? The last 5 years. When zoning an entire area for office/CBD, did the wise consultants and planners foresee demand for office falling off a cliff, sending developers scrambling for residential entitlements?
It still blows my mind that this park cost $72m. Unreal.
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How much did Cary Downtown Park cost - 60something milly???
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I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have some sticker shock at that number too. 18 acres (really more like 9 or 10 for the actual playground, I think) is an awful lot of attractive, durable, and meticulously designed/constructed outdoor space to bring to life. But then $72 million is a crazy huge sum of cash.
it’s encouraging to me - indicates the city is willing to fork the money for projects it really believes in. there are a handful of other municipal projects i hope that’s also the case for
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I don’t entirely disagree, but there is a sweet spot between “Spend whatever it takes to achieve the uncompromised vision, worry about the money later” and “VE everything to the bare essentials.”
Tax cuts don’t have to be the goal of cost savings. You can also take the money saved, and use to get more stuff done.
Take the NYC Subway. Much has been made lately of how construction costs are out of control. Notably, not many people are talking about spending less on transit in NYC. In fact even the people talking about out-of-control costs, want to spend more! They just want to get more out of the money they do spend. And part of that is making each station they build less grandiose. If you can get 4 miles of subway with 8 “basic, but decent” stations for the same amount as 2 miles of subway with 4 magnificent stations, it’s probably better for the city on the whole to choose the route that involves building more track and stations.
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