Fun Maps: Explore NYC’s Parks with This Tool from NYC BigApps

Did you know that New York City has over 1,900 parks? And 1/5 of the city’s land is devoted to green space. But with parks under so many different jurisdictions, ranging from city, state, national to private, it can be tricky figuring out what park is the right one for your particular adventure, especially if you’re not headed to one of the big dogs like Central Park or Prospect Park.  One of the grand prize winners of this year’s NYC BigApps competition is Explore NYC Parks, an app and website developed by a 26-year old developer to solve just that.

You can search by your current location or specific address and search for specific amenities or events. And the list of amenities is pretty extensive: we opted for “model aircraft” and came up with 4 spots in New York City. But amenities can be more than just activities–there are also general categories like “waterfront space, ” “open areas.” For us Untapped folks, our favorite feature is the “Take Me On an Adventure Button” which will pull up destinations like Flushing Meadows Corona Park, High Bridge (the oldest bridge in NYC), Governors Island, and with a brief description of what to find there:

Usually in the Fun Maps column, we showcase work that is visually stunning, hilarious, or reveals some underlying aspect of the city. This one gets a highlight for being simply useful, with its aggregation of data that also includes Yelp reviews and photos.

There are still some fixes that should be incorporated–like the fact that North Brother Island has open space as an amenity but is really off-limits and abandoned, but the app certainly has promise. The Explore NYC Parks app is available in the iTunes store and on the web as a responsive mobile site.

Check out more apps in our Urban Apps column, including one that changes subway ads into art!