Facilities-wise Moody Park is one of the best you will find inside the loop, and probably the best within 5 miles of downtown. Really it could be better than Memorial. It's big, it's integrated into a community, it has scenic views, multipurpose trails, a new community center, modern playgrounds, a pool, sporting fields WITH WATER FOUNTAINS! (in fact I have not seen a park anywhere in Houston with so many thoughtfully placed water fountains!)
BUT
The Houston Parks and Planning departments should be ashamed of how completely inaccessible and poorly maintained the park is:
1) parking is only accessible from southbound Fulton; there are no left turns available to get to a lot. There was even a new intersection built crossing Fulton, but no tie in to the park!
2) the Metro station is a block past the most northern section (At the main parking lot!) of the park. There was a perfect opportunity to centrally locate this station for priority access by foot
3) there are only two pedestrian crossings from the east side of Fulton along the full length of the park (at the southern-most end and just south of the Metro station)
4) the playgrounds are covered in offensive graffiti
5) the entire park has a stench, probably due to the trash-filled bayou
The neighborhoods who Moody Park should service should be offended by the lack of urban planning, and frankly segregation reinforced by traffic division as this could be a jewel of a park. it just feels more like an excuse by local politicians to say "Look, we invested millions on a park and community center here, but nobody uses it. So what is the point in continuing to fund projects here?"
There will always be challenges when building city infrastructure next door to subsidized housing projects and rampant homelessness, but the best way to assure their failure is to make them inaccessible from the start. No, I have no idea what the park is like at night. read more