Lake Hiawatha Park

A favorite playground and splash pad of my children which was newly renovated in 2012. Literally their favorite playground in Minneapolis! Often there are families having bbq/​picnics. My children always seem to meet a new friend and I seem to always met a new «neighbor».
There are public bathrooms, a community center, picnic tables, bike and walking paths, basketball courts, tennis courts, soccer fields and a tiny all grass baseball field.
I wouldn’t go swimming in Lake Hiawatha however. It closes annually for pollution/​health risk reasons.

Beautiful picturesque lake. Kiddie pool is always poppin. However do not and I mean DO NOT going swimming in the lake! You will be very, very ill! Also try and use the bathroom INSIDE the rec center if open. The one that has the entry by the handicap ramp is always disgusting!!!

This is a great urban park that essentially plays a little brother role to much larger Nokomis to the south. It’s super nice to have this green space in south Mpls and the lake itself may have some trash here and there on the edges but it is fine for swimming and great for canoeing. There are little creeks that branch off the lake in two directions: one goes towards Minnehaha Falls park and the other goes through the golf course towards Lake Nokomis and the creek leads on west from there.
There’s little greater than sitting in a canoe and enjoying the scenery of people on the beach, wildlife, BBQs in the picnic area, and just summer activity whilst drinking a beer in the middle of the lake. As others mentioned, there are walking and biking trails, a kiddy pool, playground, tennis courts and basketball hoops as well, among other things. This park is an oasis.

Great place to go for a run or a dog walk. In the summer they have great Park amenities such as a wading pool for the kids and great playground. In the winter they have a terrific skating rink and cross country skiing.

I feel bad leaving such a crappy review for a place that Emalie C. wrote so well about but, shit’s gotta get done.
I grew up a block from the park and my parents still live there. This is the park where I got jumped/​beat up for the first time, the park I first got high in, the park I first had a drink in and a park that I still ride my bike and walk my dogs through every year. The lake is absolutely disgusting compared with what it used to be, so much so that they’ve actually roped off most of the lake and labeled it a nature preserve.
Actually, I’m going to take it all back. I set out to write a bad review of this place but, how can I? I mean, even getting the shit kicked out of me when I was 10 made me a stronger, more confident person (insert all sappy cliches here.) Hiawatha stays relatively quiet (there’s usually a lot of rowdy BBQs going on in the summer, though) and has gotten a lot safer since I was young. I fell asleep on the hill quite a few times last summer by myself and didn’t feel weird about it. This is the place I grew up in and talking badly about it would be like talking shit about my mom. I just can’t do it.
Even though it is douche bag free (unlike Calhoun and Harriet) I still don’t think you should swim in that water. You might come out with an extra limb.