Ilus W. Davis Park

People love to complain about the lack of green space downtown. I suggest they convene at these two city blocks of well maintained green space to develop their talking points.
Like many of our city’s great park spaces, the only shortcoming this one has is that nobody uses it. Thus, it can feel lonely and scary in the evening, on account of it being empty. In truth, it really isn’t that sketchy. I played pickup soccer on the well-​maintained north lawn well into the summer darkness with nothing more than an amusing conversation with a passer-​by to speak of.
There were times when the lawn was a little under– or over-​watered, resulting in dead grass or muddy grown, but otherwise the park conditions were near perfect. A surprise manhole in the middle of the grass makes for an interesting obstacle for pick-​up games, but I’ll give the park a pass considering the middle of the lawn used to be an alleyway.
As night falls on downtown, an open space flanked on all sides by the glow of buildings makes for a pretty dramatic setting.
The only thing this park needs to be perfect is for you to go to it. There are thousands of people living within a couple of blocks, a MAX bus stop next door, and plenty of places for visitors to park on the street if they want to come enjoy this great space.
Do not delay. Read the rest of this review from the park. I’ll wait!
Actually, I was done anyway, but what a great place, huh?

Once upon a time, when I first moved to our fair city, I got a job downtown. This particular job was spectacularly un-​fun, and made me sad on a daily basis. My one shred of reprieve was to take my lunch hour and traverse my way to this park, unpack my lunch and a good book by the terraced fountain and pool, and escape to my happy place before shackling myself to my desk to finish out the day.
The park is super peaceful, for being smack in the middle of a downtown area, but virtually, the only people who use it are the legal types and the embroiled-​in-​legal-​issues types who traverse from courthouse to courthouse and maybe city hall.

OMG, I love this park! There’s almost no one here so I can run around with no one to interfere. It’s so great. I love it because there’s just so much grass and so many interesting smells.
This park is actually two blocks. You have to cross the street to get from one side to the other. I’m not allowed to cross the street on my own.
One side has a whole flat grass area. It’s great for just running back and forth and playing chase or catch. I really love it but not as much as I love the other side. There are far more interesting things and smells there.
The second block has levels where I love to jump up and down. It also has a water fountain that flows down the levels and into a big pool that culminates on the bottom. I love to run and jump through this pool. It’s so fun and I love to swim in it. Mostly, I just love to run through. Whenever people see me do this, they smile. Unfortunately, this rarely results in a treat.
Speaking of treats, occasionally people leave treats on the ground for me. I’ve found bagel and bread remnants a few times. A couple times I even found chicken leftovers. Yum! I loved it but my human was very mad at me and yelled at me. She’s mean. It’s ok, though. I’ll eat it anyway and just bite her if she tries to stop me.
But I digress. I love this park and I’m not just saying that because I come here so often. It’s a very fun place where I can run around in peace.

Downtown Kansas City isn’t exactly overflowing with green space. Especially in the central loop area. So two square blocks of lush green space definitely stands out.
It’s the perfect park to hang out in, play with the kids or the dog, read, eat lunch, play frisbee… with 50 people. It’s huge. Not a lot of people use it. Maybe government workers don’t like parks? But that’s ok, more space for me!
I’m not sure I’d come here after dark, though. Ironically, this stretch of perfect green between the courthouse and the police station is a very popular criminal area at night. It’s gotten a bit better since there are actually police downtown after 5pm M-​F now, but old habits die hard. Maybe someday, more people will use this park at night.
In the meantime, I’ll still go here with my dog and enjoy our little downtown paradise by myself.

An undiscovered oasis downtown. It saddens me that it’s so well maintained and available, yet barely anyone uses it.
Ilus Davis Park encompasses two complete city blocks surrounded by government buildings. One block has a nice grassy area that would be perfect for an undisturbed picnic outside of work hours. Heck, it’s so empty, it would be perfect for an undisturbed picnic during business hours as well. Rumor has it that on Tuesday nights, there are pick up games of soccer here. And I almost forgot, but there’s free wifi here too.
The other block has a cute fountain area that flows down into a pool of water. Perfect to bring your dog swimming every now and then… not that I’m the one with the cocker spaniel swimming in the water. It’s just a great place to hang and the only issues I have is with the homeless guy who loiters and unpacks all his stuff on the lawn but he pretty much likes to keep to himself in a curmudgeonly manner and read stuff like Tolstoy and Curious George.
While I’d love to see more people around, it’s a nice gem to have nearby where we can hang out smack in the middle of a city and have our privacy.