Jake Greene Park

Jake Greene Parke is located just north of 16th and Franklin Road. The park is one of Indy's better equipped residential parks - certainly not a destination park, however, it's a more inclusive and family friendly park with some ADA features worth noting. Greene Park has a comfort station with a mural of Dr. Maya Angelou on it. There's also a memorial here dedicated to Indiana AIDS advocate Ryan White, whose story continues to resonate. Greene Park has relatively new playground equipment including ADA and toddler swings, an ADA jungle gym, a percussion set, monkey bars, tunnels, and lots of places for the kids to play including a splash pad. There's also four tennis courts. The park has quite a bit of green space (seems appropriate, eh?) with picnic tables that offer some distance from the park's features to allow for family time or quiet time. There are also some short, easy walking paths within and around the park. Jake Greene Park is relatively small at 10.1 acres and was founded in 1971. Like Yelper Tank G., I wrestled with whether to offer this park a 3 or 4-star rating and leaned heavily toward 3-stars. However, I'm also somebody who appreciates parks with ADA features and despite this park needing some love I do feel like those ADA features have been well cared for here. So, I'm going to go with a 4-star review while noting this really isn't a destination park and could definitely use some additional upgrades.

This is a decent park. It is a mid-sized park and has a lot to offer. There is an adequate parking lot here. They also have a nice splash pad with colorful/fun sprayers and benches along it perimeter for caregivers to sit and watch their littles. The park has a restroom shed with a decent mural on it, but I am not sure if it is open. There is also a huge port-a-potty on the opposite in that is used as a smoke shack for some reason. The park's playground is simple, but nice. It is on a bed of wood chips and its equipment includes a bank of ADA/toddler/traditional swings, a percussion set, a quad pod spinner, a merry-go-round, and a large jungle gym with a bunch of slides, monkey bars, and tunnels. The jungle gym is ADA accessible with a ramp that leads to the top.The equipment is in good repair.The park has a large patch of clear green space that could be used for picnics, football games, soccer games, flying a kite, or playing catch. Off to the side of the green space is where you will find a nice tree shaded area with some picnic tables and benches to sit. It look like there is a meeting area over there with benches around a big rock too. There are paved paths that run through the shaded area and around the permiter of the park. The last amenity that the park has is a very nice set of 4 tennis courts that are side by side and fenced in together.The park could use a bit of maintenance and was riddled with trash all over, but it is still good. I was on the fence between a 3 and 4 star review with this one, and thought that it was closer to a 4 than a 3. This is definitely a park to check out, especially in the Summer when the splash pad is up and running.

I used to live near this park and can remember hearing about how it would one day be a great place for kids to play. My kids enjoyed it, but it was pretty limited and we didn't like them riding their bikes across 16th St with all the traffic.So, I was very pleasantly surprised to see this gleaming park with lots of parking spaces. The playground is very cool with lots of activities like climbing, swinging, sliding, a splash park. You know, fun stuff that kids really like! And benches were all around so that parents could take a break and not have to interrupt their kid's play time.A little ways to the west is a quieter area with tables and a shaded area with a memorial commemorating the planting of 120 trees by the local girl scouts.And for bigger kids, there are several tennis courts which are right next to the elementary school. I'm not sure exactly where the school's property and the park's property is divided, but it gives the impression that it is all one big, fun area.Now, if they only had a shelter....Review #630