First of all, I have visited this park about 3 times a week for 5 years or so. I mainly go to sit in the sun and listen to music on my headphones for an hour or hour and a half each time. Because I go to so many sporting events and work a lot, I stopped visiting this park for the last couple of years.
Deep down, I am not a park or beach person. That being said, I live in Park Slope and Central Park is a million times better park in every way. The ball field in Central Park is immaculately taken care of. The ball fields in Prospect Park are all falling apart and decaying, and appear to be a bunch of ball fields in the midst of a giant wasteland. The main lawn at Central Park is wide, huge and flawlessly manicured. The main lawn areas in Prospect Park look like they have not been maintained in years. After it rains in Prospect Park, for days afterwards, you will see giant holes a foot or more deep with muddy water in them similar to a mudpit. Forget trying to walk anywhere in Prospect Park after it rains. Your feet will sink into the grass a foot deep. In Central Park, after a freaking BLIZZARD, the place will look spotless and clean. Central Park has amazing beautiful rock structures that reach dozens of feet in the air overlooking an expansive area. In Prospect Park, the only view you get is sitting on grass 5 feet elevated that nobody cut or cared for in decades overlooking lawn areas that are just mud and weeds and dirt. The trees in Central Park look gorgeous and healthy and gigantic. The trees in Prospect Park almost look like giant weeds that grew out of control, with decaying leaves and mostly a brown color that appear to be dying.
Again, I am sorry to be petty. I have no preference for Manhattan over Brooklyn, but if you want to compare parks, it looks like they spent LITERALLY over 10,000 times the budget on Central Park versus Prospect Park. Whoever works at Prospect Park or in the Parks Department, God Bless them, I have nothing against them, but Prospect Park is grey, withering, falling apart, muddy, and badly maintained. I have to compare it to Central Park as what else will i compare it to? Central Park West which runs parallel to Central Park even has perfectly-straight neat pavement. Prospect Park West's, the poor man's Brooklyn alternative, has cracked uneven sidewalks. The paved roads inside Prospect Park are also uneven and badly structured. Central Park's paved roads are immaculate. The paved roads where cars go around Central Park are also much cleaner and perfectly paved. The paved roads where cars circle Prospect Park are uneven and inconsistent and dirty with weeds popping out of everything.
Tavern on the Green in Central Park in the Upper West Side of Manhattan hosts events with A-list celebrities. Prospect Park's equivalent is an outdoor BBQ area and a couple of vendors selling ice cream, water and hot dogs.
Again, I am not a park person by any means. I guess what I am saying is a testament to how much money is in Midtown and Uptown Manhattan as opposed to Brooklyn. I am happy that any park exists in Brooklyn, but please, pro-Brooklyn lunatic nutjobs, be REALISTIC. Prospect Park is a dump, it is not well-maintained, especially compared to Central Park. If you want to run or bike in Prospect Park, great, but don't act like you prefer this to Central Park because it's not even close.
I understand that Prospect Park hosts free concerts in the park during the summer, which is great I guess. Very few big acts ever perform there at Prospect Park, sorry. If I want to see a big act, I will go to Madison Square Garden, Barclays Center, Radio City Music Hall, Met Life Stadium or a smaller venue in NYC area.
To be clear, I live in Park Slope Brooklyn and have no desire to move to Manhattan. I want to live in Brooklyn. I could care less really about parks or beaches as both are not my thing really. I am simply calling it how I see it. I know pro-Brooklyn nuts will hate me for saying it, but Prospect Park, as far as parks go, is a dump. And like i said, i am not even a park or beach person anyway so I don't really care, just being honest.
I realize it has an ice skating rink, about 30 years ago I had my own Bauer skates and went to that rink in Brooklyn all the time for a few years. The rink in Central Park is much nicer, gorgeous in comparison, especially at night.
There are great things about Park Slope, I think it has the best restaurants in NYC literally and I've eaten at pretty much every area in New York City. It has proximity to a ton of great things in the NYC area. However, this park was just not well-taken care of and that is the understatement of the century. If Park Slope parents want to crucify me for saying this, too bad. You can swear by Park Slope and think you are down-to-earth in a small town or community, yet living in a 4 million dollar brownstone (and that is another debate about a type of hypocrisy for another day), but this park sucks, sorry to break the news. read more