Leonard Gordon Park

The
Forgotten
Park
Leonard Gordon Park is the oldest & largest in Jersey City Heights. First constructed in the early 1900’s and is approximately 5.7 acres in size.
It was named after a NY native who served in the Union Army during the Civil War. After moving to Jersey City, Dr. Gordon is best known around here for a few things. They are the placement of the sculpture of Soldiers & Sailors Memorial outside of City Hall. Also of note, he helped the founding of the Free public library of Jersey City. His bust is in the front lobby to this very day.
Enough of the history of this park/​person…
It needs a facelift and some looking after. The park has a gazebo that is right in the center and is falling apart. With paint chips all over the place and wood planks falling down. The walking paths are concrete and all cracked with not much lighting in the area that I noticed. Even the Bull & Bear statues which this Park known for, can use a little TLC.
There is a very nice World War I memorial that was dedicated on November 9^th, 1930 when you first enter the park.
Currently under construction is a playground for the kids on your right when first entering the park. Out front on the Kennedy Blvd entrance way are a couple of nice little gardens which are very nice to see.
City administration is working on a reclamation project to spruce up this grand old park. Hopefully it works. I’d hate to see this park disappear & fall to the hands of the less than desirable folks that can hang here.

This has been and currently still is… a local JC homeboy park. Yeah, brown-​bagged boone’s bottles can be seen on the ground. It’s still rough up here in the heights.
The greenery is on the smaller side, but when you live in a large city like this, you take what you can get.
It’s been called mosquito park forever. I’m sure that in 5+ years, it will be overrun with yuppies that can’t afford the downtown area.

Known to the locals as «Mosquito Park» (or simply «the park with the big buffalo statues»), Gordon Park is one of the 3 main parks in the Heights (along with Pershing Field and Washington Park). Considerably smaller than the other 2, Gordon Park does have a few things working in its favor:
— huge changes in elevation. Compared to the almost completely flat nature of both Pershing Field and Washington Park, the hills and slopes in Gordon Park allow kids to sled in the winter when it snows, or crossfit trainers to run up and down steps to your glutes’ content.
— less trafficked. Pershing Field in the summer gets swamped with kids playing in the water, on the baseball fields, or riding bikes. In contrast, Gordon Park is relatively serene. You do get some traffic on the northern end as people play basketball/​soccer, but the rest of the park is relatively quiet, which is good for a quiet stroll.
— great views West. In the summer, visit the park near sunset for really scenic sunset views. Because of the elevation, you can see pretty far towards the horizon.
Well, all this seems great. Why only 3 stars?
— dirty, dirty, dirty. No, I don’t mean dirt. Broken glass, dog poop, empty beer cans… I could go on. Most of it isn’t in the walking paths, but it’s still pretty unsightly
— casual drug use. Thankfully I have yet to see any homeless junkies shooting up in this park. However, the unique odor that our high school aged friends seem to enjoy in the evenings is prevalent. Kind of annoying when all you want to do is go for a run.
— isolated at night. Once night hits, the park empties out faster than you can say «run yo pockets fool». Only enterprising individuals venture around at night (but if you see me running there, I promise I won’t jump you).
Overall, Leonard Gordon park is a microcosm of the Heights — and in actuality, all of Jersey City. It’s gritty. It’s fun. It’s sexy. It’s a good place to spend your time, and if you can keep your wits about you, then you too may enjoy all that it has to offer.