I’m trying to locate a park. You see, I’ve been living in the same apartment complex for over a year and had yet to visit the nearest patch of green grass that is the city park located just a quarter mile away. I know, shame on me. I finally checked it out on Monday to feed my rekindled love for the martial arts.Man—That’s one fine park. I’ve heard people like to go sledding and ice blocking there in the winter, and there’s good reason why. Right in the middle is a hill with steep slopes on both sides. Yesterday, a family used gravity, a plastic sled and the remaining precipitation from watering time to the same effect. Fast and super scary.I like my park. I’ve been there twice in the last four days, I just didn’t know what it was named. I figured that the City of Albuquerque website would make it easy to find. Not so much. After a little digging around, I found the city’s Geographic Information Site. I plugged in my home address, and with some point and clicking, I found the name—Netherwood Park. I also found that playing around with the GIS system, while sightly frustrating, is a great resource for Duke City citizens. It told me who my city councilor is, what schools are in my district and even located a few other parks within walking distance of my adobe. It’s pretty cool—if you have a fast Internet connection and don’t mind figuring things out without direction. Despite its not-so-user friendly interface, it makes for a cool way to find things around the city. Now we need an online bus route creator that would make it easier to use public transit.
High Tech City
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