My name is Xavier Cunningham. I am a high school Dreamer from the Colorado I have a Dream program and I have grown up watching Central Park develop as a community. I didn’t know about a lot of the great things in Central Park, yet I have learned many great and surprising discoveries: and hope to tell you about these unique places, through my eyes, in this blog series called “Did You Know?” Introducing the seventh story in the series.
Westerly Creek Park
From Montview to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard along Beeler Street, is a beautiful park called Westerly Creek Park. This park is a “natural habitat” for wildlife, active people, and art. You can find bikers, joggers, walkers and all kinds of other people enjoying its fields, trees and its long creek that runs through the middle of the park. Westerly Creek is also a large part of Central Park’s huge (1,100 acre) network of parks and open space. Its trial system is a part of the “web” of trails that connect: Future parks in Northfield, Sand Creek Regional Greenway, Central Park, Fred Thomas Park, and others. It appears to be a convenient connection of nature that is integrated with sidewalks.
Earlier in the “Did You Know?” blog series, I mentioned that Westerly Creek Park is about as manmade as the Chorus Vessels sprinkled around it. And before that, Westerly Creek was a big drain pipe under an airport runway. But with Central Park’s Green Book vision, aesthetics, native ecology, and storm water engineering, Westerly Creek was brought back to a natural riparian corridor.
And not only does Westerly Creek serve as a great spot to observe nature, it was also specifically designed as a safe way to control storm and flood water. So not only is it a great natural space, but just another great example of how Central Parkcan take the ruins of an airport and convert it into an enjoyable public place for the neighborhood. So please, go check it out, follow the Chorus vessels and explore through the park to see for yourself.
Learn more about Central Park’s vast collection of parks and open space by viewing the new Parks Brochure.
