Tanagool Park vs. Rotary Park

On one hand we have tiny Tanagool Park, reincarnated at the end of Wright Street, on the other we have Rotary Park, a monolithic megapark out in the countryside.

Strengths of Tanagool Park:
Location-Tanagool is located in a relatively built up area near the activity center of LaSalle. Here it can take advantage of activity going on around the park. Shoppers, eaters, residents, workers, etc. can all go an use this park. It has a much more likely chance of use.
Size-Tanagool is small and human scaled.One can sit on the park an interact with any humans in any part of the park easily. It is easy to identify and communicate over the distances involved.

Weaknesses of Tanagool Park:
Design:
     Environment-The white picket fence just does not seem to go with the park. It takes its cue from nothing nearby. It clashes with its environment. The building next to it is too dull, it needs windows or some sort of interaction with the park. There is an empty parking lot next to the park. This does not contextualize the park well with such a hostile space next door.
     Seating-There could be more formal and informal seating.
     Transition-The park has no transition zone from city to park, no permeable strip of trees or plantings and pavement.
     Enclosure-Ideally a building would shelter at least two sides of the park, with some sort of permeable enclosure on the other two, perhaps a strip of trees or a trellis.  

So we see a disconnect between intent and execution. The general idea of a pocket park was good, pocket parks are fun, cheap, and add amenity to the surrounding area. The design of the park is less than glamorous though. It is if people were not the center of the design, it is more of a green band aid for the downtown. 

Strengths of Rotary Park:
Activities: Rotary park will offer a large amount of activities for all the family, this will attract people.
Public Spirit: The public, or at least the media, is excited about this. Large projects are noticeable projects.

Weaknesses of Rotary Park:
Activities: Rotary park will offer a large amount of activities, this will attract people away from the salvageable parts of LaSalle.

Location: Rotary park is too far away from any other sorts of activities. It does not build on previous assets, it destroys them. The bulk of LaSalle lives across the Little Vermilion River west of the park and to walk there, though not difficult, is daunting to most. The lack of proximity is going to make the park car dependent. The mark of a great park is not the park itself. The vitality of a park is based on its surroundings. There is not much of interest at the edges of Rotary Park. 
Access: Rotary park only has a single point of access.
Safety: The park is much too large and distant from society to be safely patrolled and monitored.

However, Rotary park is not all bad. There are certain function of a park that people do not like living next to, such as sports fields, and wildlife corridors. These would do fine in Rotary park. However, we already have more unique spaces that satisfy wilderness areas in the area, such as Starved Rock, Buffalo Rock, and Matthiessen State Park. Rotary park should play to its strengths and abandon its playground, amphitheater, and anything other that sports, picnicking, and wildlife. The park could try to take over the burden of sports complexes by removing them in Hegeler Park and Matthiessen Park and putting the more attractive amenities such as outrageous playgrounds and bandstands, and grassy open space that can be adapted to any purpose, in these existing more-integrated parks.

 I do not see that this project as proposed, adds any value to LaSalle. It does not build on current assets, and could actually destroy them. I do not see it as fitting that public monies are being mixed with it. This money could be better spent on smaller project to improve the current parks in LaSalle instead of abandoning them for a behemoth.

Some Links and Links to Links expounding further on the subject:
Park Economics,
Jane Jacobs on Parks
Jan Gehl's Planning Principles