Photo: Dorothy Reilly, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
A humongous collection of woodlands and parks (2,800 acres!), the Greenbelt is a collection of nature you wouldn't expect to see in any major city, let alone New York. The Greenbelt covers much of the Mid-Island, so it's best to know which part you want to go to beforehand. A good place to start is the Greenbelt Nature Center an educational facility in the center of the park. The park is a great place for hikers, and a map of hiking trails can be found here
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.
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American woman Jacques Marchais had a dream of traveling to Tibet. While she never made it, her extensive collection of Tibetan artifacts was made into a museum in 1947. The museum now holds over 120 pieces of beautiful Tibetan art. The museum's authenticity was praised by the Dalai Lama.
A large park with a carousel.
A small park that is not much more than a clearing and some trees. A monument to the man the park was named for, Roald Amundsen, stands in the center of it.
This deceivingly small park has two large asphalt playgrounds, two smaller ones, a grass field, a baseball field, basketball courts, and a jungle gym. It is always peaceful and rarely crowded, as it is shared by Public School 50 during school hours.
Only in the first stages of development, this mega-park is set to be 2,200 acres—three times the size of Central Park. It will cover the wild areas of the Fresh Kills, and the former Fresh Kills Dump. The first section of the park, Schmul Park, in Travis, features a large and colorful playground for kids, along with basketball courts, handball courts, and an open grass field.