Clove Lakes Park is a public park in the Sunnyside neighborhood of Staten Island in New York City. [1]
Clove Lakes Park has a rich natural history with valuable ecological assets and a few remnants of the past. Chief among them are the park's lakes and ponds, outcroppings of serpentine rocks, and Staten Island's largest living thing, a 119-foot-tall (36 m) tulip tree. [2] Clove Lakes Park is home to many species of indigenous wildlife. Visitors can see fish such as black crappie, brown bullhead, bluegill, emerald shiner, pumpkinseed, largemouth bass, and carp; birds such as red-tailed hawk, belted kingfisher, double-crested cormorant, red-winged blackbird, Canada goose, heron, egret and mallard; as well as reptiles and amphibians, like the common snapping turtle, eastern painted turtle, red-eared slider, and occasionally even the red-backed salamander. The park is also home to mammals such as eastern gray squirrel, muskrat, eastern cottontail, and eastern chipmunk.
The park is known for its cozy picnic accommodations and boating. [3] Besides strolling down trails and paddling on its bodies of water, visitors can experience the park as a more modern recreation zone. Several baseball diamonds, a soccer field, basketball court, playgrounds, and a football field dot the park's landscape. The Staten Island World War II Veteran's Memorial Ice Skating Rink is an outdoor rink located in what could be called the "active" part of the park, close to its other fields and courts. The park also contains a restaurant overlooking Clove Lake, and the borough headquarters of the city's Department of Parks and Recreation.
The park consists of three lakes: the main one is Clove Lake, which runs off to Martling Lake, and then to Brooks Lake.
The Staten Island Expressway, part of Interstate 278, built in 1964, goes through a cleft just south of the park, connecting the then newly built Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge in the east with the Goethals Bridge in the west. When first proposed, the expressway was to be named the Clove Lake Expressway.
Prospect Park is a 526-acre (2.13 km2) urban park in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The park is situated between the neighborhoods of Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Flatbush, and Windsor Terrace, and is adjacent to the Brooklyn Museum, Grand Army Plaza, and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. With an area of 526 acres (213 ha), Prospect Park is the second-largest public park in Brooklyn, behind Marine Park. Designated as a New York City scenic landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Prospect Park is operated by the Prospect Park Alliance and NYC Parks.
The Staten Island Greenbelt is a system of contiguous public parkland and natural areas in the central hills of the New York City borough of Staten Island. It is the second largest component of the parks owned by the government of New York City and is maintained by the city's Department of Parks and Recreation and the Greenbelt Conservancy, a not-for-profit organization that works in partnership with NYC Parks to care for the Greenbelt and raise funds for its maintenance and programs. The Greenbelt includes High Rock Park, LaTourette Park, William T. Davis Wildlife Refuge, and Willowbrook Park among others.
The Fresh Kills Landfill was a landfill covering 2,200 acres (890 ha) in the borough of Staten Island in New York City, United States. The name comes from the landfill's location along the banks of the Fresh Kills estuary in western Staten Island.
The term East Shore is frequently applied to a series of neighborhoods along the Lower New York Bay and the Raritan Bay and within New York City's borough of Staten Island.
The term North Shore is frequently applied to a series of neighborhoods within the New York City borough of Staten Island.
Grasmere is the name of a neighborhood located on the East Shore of Staten Island, one of the five boroughs of New York City, New York, United States.
Sunnyside is the name of a neighborhood in the Mid-Island region of the New York City borough of Staten Island.
Graniteville is the name of a neighborhood in Staten Island, one of the five boroughs of New York City.
Grymes Hill is a 374 feet (114 m) tall hill formed of serpentine rock on Staten Island, New York. It is the second highest natural point on the island and in the five boroughs of New York City. The neighborhood of the same name encompasses an area of 0.894 square miles (2.32 km2) and has a population of 8,263 people. The hill also includes parts of the Silver Lake neighborhood. The area includes part of ZIP Codes 10301 and 10304.
Port Ivory is a coastal area in the northwestern corner of Staten Island, New York City, New York, United States. It is located on Newark Bay near the entrances the Kill van Kull in the east and Arthur Kill in the west. It is bordered by Arlington to the east, Old Place to the south, Newark Bay to the north, and the Arthur Kill to the west.
Alley Pond Park is the second-largest public park in Queens, New York City, occupying 655.3 acres (265.2 ha). The park is bordered to the east by Douglaston, to the west by Bayside, to the north by Little Neck Bay, and to the south by Union Turnpike. The Cross Island Parkway travels north-south through the park, while the Long Island Expressway and Grand Central Parkway travel east-west through the park. The park primarily consists of woodlands south of the Long Island Expressway and meadowlands north of the expressway. It is run and operated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.
Wolfes Pond Park is a large public park located on Staten Island's South Shore. It is bounded on the south by Holton Avenue, on the east by Raritan Bay, on the west by the Staten Island Railway, and on the north by Chisholm Street, Luten Avenue, and Cornelia Avenue, which is also the main entry into the park's public areas. Hylan Boulevard bisects the park, and most visitors only visit the eastern half of the park, where Wolfes Pond, two playgrounds, and basketball and tennis courts are located, as well as numerous walking and biking paths, open fields, and a small beach on Raritan Bay. The western, inland half consists mostly of ponds and woodlands, and the northwestern corner hugs Tottenville High School.
The South Beach–Franklin Delano Roosevelt Boardwalk, alternately referred to as the FDR Boardwalk or the South Beach Boardwalk, is a boardwalk facing the Lower New York Bay on the East Shore of Staten Island, one of the five boroughs of New York City. The boardwalk is the main feature of a public park that stretches from Fort Wadsworth and the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge to Miller Field, both part of the Gateway National Recreation Area. The park also contains numerous recreational facilities, including a skate park.
Freshkills Park is a public park being built atop a former landfill on Staten Island. At about 2,200 acres (8.9 km2), it will be the largest park developed in New York City since the 19th century. Its construction began in October 2008 and is slated to continue in phases for approximately 30 years. When fully developed by 2035–2037, Freshkills Park will be the second-largest park in New York City, after Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx, and almost three times the size of Central Park in Manhattan. The park is envisioned as a regional destination that integrates open grasslands, waterways and engineered structures into a cohesive and dynamic unit for social, cultural and physical activity, learning and play. Sections of the park will be connected by a circulation system for vehicles and a network of paths for bicyclists and pedestrians. The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation is managing the project with the New York City Department of Sanitation.
Willowbrook Park is a recreational park in Willowbrook, Staten Island, New York City, within the Staten Island Greenbelt. The 164-acre (0.66 km2) public park provides baseball fields, a playground, and a pond. A carousel was opened in 1999. The former Staten Island Hotel can be seen from the park.
Buono Beach is a small shorefront public park in the New York City borough of Staten Island, in the neighborhood of Rosebank, at the foot of Hylan Boulevard. Buono Beach borders New York Harbor and is adjacent to the park containing the Alice Austen House. The park contains a local veterans' memorial fountain.
The Pond and Hallett Nature Sanctuary are two connected features at the southeastern corner of Central Park in Manhattan, New York City. It is located near Grand Army Plaza, across Central Park South from the Plaza Hotel, and slightly west of Fifth Avenue. The Pond is one of seven bodies of water in Central Park.
Baisley Pond Park is a public park located in the southeastern part of Queens, New York City, bordering the neighborhoods of South Jamaica, Rochdale, and St. Albans. It covers 109.61 acres (44.36 ha), including the 30-acre (12 ha) Baisley Pond in the center of the park. It is maintained by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.
Ingram Woods is a 3.7-acre forest preserve in the Westerleigh neighborhood of Staten Island, New York, bound by Warwick Avenue, Purdy Avenue, Ingram Avenue, and Gannon Avenue North. The streets around Ingram Woods Park were laid out in 1907 by the firm of Wood, Harmon & Co. for the planned community of South New York. The properties were offered at the bargain price of $190, but because of the neighborhood's isolated location, only a few homes were built by the time that the City began laying out the Staten Island Expressway.
The Serpentine Ridge Nature Preserve is a 40 acres woodland in the North Shore of Staten Island between Howard Avenue at the top of the ridge and Van Duzer Street at the bottom of the hill. The Serpentine Ridge plays an important part in Staten Island's ecosystem and biodiversity and maintains significant geological features. The Serpentine Ridge is a steep terrain on the east shore of the island within the Grymes Hill and Silver Lake neighborhoods of Staten Island. The area is notable for its variety of ecosystems including wooded hillsides, glacial sinkholes, and bare serpentine rock. The area is part of Staten Island's Special Hillsides Preservation District. The district was established to preserve the hilly terrain and unique natural features of the region, by reducing hillside erosion, landslides, and excessive storm-water runoff. Most of its land remains in a natural state, thus the area is covered with native vegetation. The Serpentine Art and Nature Commons owns approximately 11.5 acres of land within the area and acts as an environmental steward to the entire area.