Paradise Park

There’s always some sketchy people around this park, and the grass is patchy and covered in bird poop, but I come back for the open basketball courts with convenient access to water fountains. Don’t take your kids down the slides – I’ve seen several interesting characters using them as beds.

Playing pickleball here. Lots of lines on the courts so it’s a bit confusing at first. And the glare from the huge glass windows is blinding. Next time I’m wearing my sunglasses. Hope that will help.

Homeless in the park?! How unheard of! Not really, folks. It may be unappealing for you suburbanites who choose to live within the confines of a tiny box, but not for me, a born and raised city girl who has adapted to urban culture and diversity.
I love this park, and have been going here for years. It’s small, quiet (on most days), and green. I go there when I don’t want to deal with crowded parks like Sunset. Actually, I have mostly given up on Sunset and replaced it with Paradise. :)
The way these people make Paradise out to be is totally not what it really is. I say, check it out for yourself. If you prefer grass and matured trees over the dull gravely desert landscapes found in these newer ‘homeless free’ parks, or you just want to get away from crowded parks, but still want to enjoy the greenery, then Paradise is the place to go. I have had a lot of peaceful picnics here. Never had a problem with homeless people (who I’ve barely scene) or drug dealers (who I’ve NEVER seen, and I’ve hung out here late at night to have some wine with friends.). I mostly picnic on the Northeast side of the park. Lots of shade, grass, and beautiful big trees to be enjoyed. :)

Dirty gross, all the bums hang out here. Avoid!

I lived in this neighborhood a number of years ago and can assure you this isn’t a park you’d want to visit with your kids or even by yourself late at night.
Any evening of the week you can find homeless people living around the park as well as people dealing drugs.
They did have softball tournaments here quite regularly. If you’re coming here as part of a large group you probably won’t have any problems with the riff raff that likes to hang around here. But as far as visiting it for a leisurely stroll or a quite picnic I’d definitely look elsewhere.

This park is on the dirty side with broken glass in the parking lot. We had to be careful with our dogs. We only went here a couple of times. Lots of people have parties here, though. So, it’s popular with that crowd– I wasn’t sure if they were families, but they were having a BBQ. I did notice that the basketball courts had quite a few people there. We haven’t been there recently.

Paradise Park, on McLeod between Tropicana and Harmon, has been host to, well, a host of barbecues we’ve thrown for the mere fact that it’s close and we’re lazy. But, hey, guess what? It works, and there’s always something going on.
There’s plenty of benches and, since we’re not prissy and use park grills, plenty of grills to use. There’s a covered area or two that, on the weekends, are usually reserved for parties, but you could call Parks and Rec to reserve them for yourself if you were so inclined. The park boasts a large playground, exercise route, basketball courts, a rec center and a pool. It’s an older park, and the trees are mature, full and offer plenty of shade in the summer. Ice cream trucks used to have little ice cream wars trying to get customers to buy their (identical) wares over their competitors (identical) confections and hopefully will once it warms up again.
Of course, Tropicana and McLeod is no longer exactly the BEST neighborhood in town. The park police patrol the park regularly, oftentimes not bothering to get out of the car but driving through the park on the grass itself. I’m often amused by the drunkards walking home, or the crazy man urinating, or the lady with the bag on her head, but more family oriented or societally squeamish people might not enjoy that quite as much as I do. Also, and not surprisingly because it IS a park, the bathrooms are always deplorable. This is why we use this park because of it’s proximity to home. Of course, I let my friends drive to my house to use the restroom.
No, you can’t come over to pee. Geez. I don’t even know you.