In my time on this Earth, I have been to three of what are considered the greatest urban parks in America. And all three - while great - are very different from each other and reflect, in my opinion, the differences in the cities they represent. Without anthropomorphizing too much (I believe Freud said “sometimes a park is just a park”), here we go: first, Central Park in New York City. Now, admittedly it’s been about 8 years or so, but from what I recall, Central Park was magnificent - but kind of not exactly much of a park. Meaning, it had a pretty heavy hand of man. I remember amusements such as a carousel, vendors selling things, somebody renting horses, and big open expanses for people to run on. It was heavily “improved”, in the sense that people had made it suitable for people-type activities.
Next, we have Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. GGP is kind of in-between. The part near the east end is improved, definitely, with two museums, a carousel, and a few roads where people stroll and bike. It even allows cars in parts of the park. However, as you head west, it gets fairly wild and open, and there’s a lot of trails and not much in the way of signs of man. And even the parts that are built up are fairly sedate and still covered in vegetation.
Then, you have Forest Park in Portland, where I hiked about 12 miles today. Forest Park is a good name for it because it’s basically just a forest that happens to be called a park. It seems as though a few folks just built a dirt road or two through a big stretch of Oregon forest and said “hey you crazy kids, go for it.” It’s exceptionally natural and has been treated with a very light touch. There are no attractions, or museums, or people selling things. It’s just a park. Apparently, it was supposed to originally be a housing development, but the road got washed out and they just made it a park, thus creating the famous Portland saying “if at first you don’t succeed, just turn it into a park”.
So, yes: New York is the home of man, San Francisco is the home of an uneasy truce, and Portland is the home of the forest. Broadly speaking.