Syracuse Boasts Parks and Open Spaces

As the name indicates, the village of  North Syracuse is the first village north of the City of Syracuse and is situated on the road to Watertown and the North Country. It is actually located in the the town of Clay, not in the city of Syracuse, which may be confusing to newcomers to our area.

Parks and open space help define the character of the City and give it a unique range of assets within the county and region.

Syracuse has approximately 172 municipally owned and maintained parks, fields, inactive cemeteries, medians/traffic islands (most of which are landscaped and contribute to neighborhood greenspace), and natural areas. Since Syracuse has about 32% of the County’s population and 61% of the County’s municipal parks, the City is comparatively rich in parks and open space. This abundance of open space is even more apparent in the variety of parks and open space available in the City. These facilities include forested areas, harbors, pools, ball fields, tennis and basketball courts, ice skating rinks, golf courses, picnic areas, playgrounds, monuments, trails and public gathering places.

The Syracuse Department of Parks, Recreation & Youth Programs Department is the sole local government agency charged specifically with providing recreation for city residents. Approximately 1,000 acres of parks, playgrounds and open spaces are included under the Department’s stewardship.

The Syracuse Parks Department is responsible for coordinating, administering, and staffing a variety of recreational, support, and special events programs. These goals are accomplished through Special Events, Senior Programs, Aquatics, Adult Programs, Ice Rinks, Golf, Youth Programs, Forestry and Grounds Divisions.

The Department also has an Office of Graphics and an Office of Planning and Development that serve the public through capital improvements, community programs and the creation of signage and graphics for the parks.

Outdoor Winter Adventures

It can be hard for kids and parents to find fun activities during our many, many weeks of winter here in Central New York. It’s tough to say stay off the scooter until spring. But we do try to find other ways of having fun indoors, and weather permitting, many parents and children turn to the outdoors for fun.

Cross-country skiing is available throughout Central New York. Whether along the creek’s edge in Syracuse’s near east side, at Green Lakes State Park in Fayetteville or at Battle Island State Park’s golf course north of Fulton, cross-country skiing is great exercise for the whole family.

Clinton Square Ice Rink is an open air, outside rink that during the non-winter months is part of an open plaza with stores, business’, banks and bars all around. There are memorials to visit, places to sit and eat lunch, and lots of classic buildings to view. From late November till early March, the city of Syracuse converts the lower level of the plaza into a nice ice rink that sees lots of avid skaters. There is even a streaming webcam located on the roof of one of the local buildings that points down at the plaza for all the world to see.

What else can one do to keep the kids, and yourself, sane during the cold months?

The opening of Clinton Square in September 2001 met with rave reviews and the square is currently a spectacular civic plaza for festivals, farmers’ markets, concerts and ice skating. Ice skating is a popular activity during the winter months, and approximately 60,000 people used the ice rink during the 2008-2009 season. Summertime festivals held in Clinton Square include Taste of Syracuse, which drew 75,000 people to the area for the two day event in 2007. Overall, over 200,000 people use Clinton Square each year.