Chaz Rough: Welcome in one to this edition of Lookin’ @ Louisville my name is Chaz.

Stacey Yates: And I’m Stacey.

Chaz Rough: Yes, we’re here at the park. We’re grouping out for taking easy for a much deserve play time for us.

Stacey Yates: Yeah.

Chaz Rough: But radically, we’re here for a reason.

Stacey Yates: That’s right Chaz. Given it a spring and getting right ahead of the summer season and while left flat side. It’s probably good time to take a look at our city’s amazing park system, and so we’re going to be talking to two people today. One is responsible for having preserved our city’s park heritage and the other that’s an integral part of enhancing the future especially the urban park system.

Chaz Rough: And since we’re dealing with park here we’re going to go to a place called the Cycler’s café to eat in the parks as well.

Stacey Yates: That’s right, it’s a little bit off a bit pan of the bicycle path and as it were and then finally we’re going to find out what will has a comment with New York city’s central park.

Chaz Rough: Okay, let’s go.

Stacey Yates: Let’s go. Well, Chaz tell us where we are/

Chaz Rough: Well, we are at the Louisville Loop.

Stacey Yates: That’s right and we are here with a good friend of mine, Chris Poynter with the Mayor’s office. He’s going to tell us a little about what the city has been doing with that green space.

Chris Poynter: Yeah, well you all know about a 100 years ago our city fathers hired a little gun. They trade for aluminum Olmsted. How do you know him?

Stacey Yates: Yeah.

Chaz Rough: Trade for aluminum?

Chris Poynter: Yeah, he did a little park in New York have seen two parks, and everybody knows now three major Olmsted said, parks they are all connected by park ways and so 24 years ago the Mayor along with city leaders decided that we need to recreate the Olmsted version and in summer, and then we need to connect them with the old purpose it’s amazing when you get to see all the segments of our city you get to see downtown. You get to see limited areas. You get to go just see water, it’s beautiful and you’ll be able to start right downtown here and go a 100 miles all around the city. Hike, bike, you can even jogging.

Chaz Rough: So how many parks that we actually have in this city, and I don’t actually know where we get it just a couple of Bell forests as well.

Chris Poynter: We got a 123 parks, 14,000 acres and that is not included. We have an entire forest, just the biggest, the largest urban forest in the country. In here the www.louisvilleky.gov and we have all the information there. We have our routes in the parks. We have our street, the ground of Louisville Loop.

Stacey Yates: Thanks for sharing and we’ll so you on the —

Chris Poynter: Thanks, you’ve done a great job.

Stacey Yates: Let’s go.

Chaz Rough: You guys go ahead. You guys there on it. So now we got our parks of playground. It’s time for lunch and I—

Stacey Yates: And I stand a part of the episode always.

Chaz Rough: Yes and we’re here with the owner of the Cycler’s café here at Louisville, Kentucky.

Stacey Yates: This is Joe Sohm. Thanks for having us.

Chaz Rough: Thank you very much and we’re going to have some lunch. I can have a chicken burrito.

Stacey Yates: Veggie burrito, coming yeah.

Chaz Rough: The great thing about this place is not only you can come and eat but you have to get your bike repaired and get your bite repaired and eat and then you go back and get the to the path.

Stacey Yates: Those who know, so by that we know that he was waiting coming lunch well just waiting his bite.

Chaz Rough: So just a little about the event of your Cycler’s, you’re coming in a little more to ride why is such a great topping for your—

Joe Sohm: After most priced people are used in hungry and thirsty so we get outside seating. We provide after the rides and have a beer and the coke.

Chaz Rough: Now beer, I want some more information about your location, anytime you’re on the web?

Joe Sohm: www.cyclerscafe.com.

Stacey Yates: Okay, this is my first time here after living up to hill in Crescent Hill and I’m definitely back.

Chaz Rough: Definitely, it’s a good food restaurant.

Joe Sohm: Here is at Louisville.

Stacey Yates: Yeah, thanks for having us.

Chaz Rough: Well you make it here going to park. Now this is the area I grew up and for many years I will come here for walking and cycling, but now it also got something great. It’s been here for many years and it’s newly renovated. The Iroquois amphitheater where they have mini great shows to come and see in fact, my daughter came here watch High School Musical.

Now if you’d like to find out more information about this venue, this beautifully new renovated venue that you can actually use just go to www.iroquoisamphitheater.com. Now again, this is the park that is a favorite along the park as well and it’s where they run the mini nearby so if you get the chance in your local make it a point to know all the park to go to the very top so you can see the beautiful view of downtown Louisville town. Enjoy.

Stacey Yates: We are standing at the higher top one of my favorite parks because it’s closest to our neighborhood, charity park with the president of the Louisville Olmsted conservancy, Mimi Zinniel. Thank you for meeting us here.

Mimi Zinniel: It’s my pleasure.

Stacey Yates: We want to talk about–we told viewers earlier, one of our best kept secrets is what we have, what we have in common with New York City? And I think that’s you can tell us, if there are very few cities.

Mimi Zinniel: There are few cities that have these park systems the Olmsted park system that we already had. We have 18 parks that were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and transformed after he died that can rid on. Louisville already had some park lands set aside, but it wasn’t designed it was basically just farm land. This valley was once of the areas they have set aside. It was known that time as East Park.

Stacey Yates: Okay.

Mimi Zinniel: They also had set aside some land on the western along the river which was called West Park now shiny and then Iroquois which the mayor himself had watched out of his own pocket and then invited Frederick Law Olmsted, who was known as the landscape architect of all times.

Stacey Yates: So he had already done Central Park at that.

Mimi Zinniel: Yes, in fact, Louisville that’s the last system he did. Central Park is the first, a great start of project.

Stacey Yates: Yes.

Mimi Zinniel: And Louisville was the last, so he told to come in and do the designs and he was so delighted because these three properties that have been already set aside, each represented very different topography, different geography and to him represented a white palate for how he could design this beautiful parks, so Cherokee takes it out. He takes advantage of the Bell grass creek going through the valley here this wonderful valley that hillside all the meandering of Cherokee park.

Iroquois of course highlights the nabbed that what was known at that time is known as that magnificent—

Stacey Yates: That was a great overview of Louisville.

Mimi Zinniel: A great overview of Louisville, the best view of Louisville that ever going to get and then shiny with its great flat area along the river with his idea of the best place for the great lawn which could have public events and great family reunions and all kinds of wonderful things where the community.

Stacey Yates: All right.

Mimi Zinniel: So it’s not just designed but also park quality. Quality of the environment we’re very green, very echo. Hopefully everything is psychologically —

Stacey Yates: Well, thanks for bringing us today.

Mimi Zinniel: Thank you it’s my pleasure to tell you about the park’s conservancy in Olmsted.

Stacey Yates: Thank you.

Mimi Zinniel: Thank you so much.

Chaz Rough: Well, Stacey do you have fun today? Did you get to become that inner child again?

Stacey Yates: I did. I’ve always have a great time in our city’s parks as well.

Chaz Rough: This is a great place for you, wonderful place to bring your kids. It’s beautiful I mean—

Stacey Yates: And free.

Chaz Rough: And free and they’ve got a water park too that’s great for the kids and it’s worth been able to go all of the different parks of Cherokee to check us all your from your—

Stacey Yates: And all the space that we have downtown for visitors especially it’s —

Chaz Rough: Now if you’d like to participate in this podcast and you’d like to get some cool logo swath, just send us an email www.podcast@gotolouisville.com. We’d like your feedback. We love the email.

Stacey Yates: Tell us where you want to be found.

Chaz Rough: Yes, please give us more ideas and information because it’s been a very helpful so far. Now we’re going to take a real looking right now. Stacey are you ready?

Stacey Yates: 360?

Chaz Rough: 360 look at Louisville.

Stacey Yates: Let’s do it.

Chaz Rough: Well as always.

Stacey Yates: You’re lookin’ @ Louisville.

Chaz Rough: See you real soon. Here we go.