Porter Park

I just spent an hour at this little park with a three year old. She never got tired of it. We played until it was time to meet her mommy for dinner. There were only a couple of other children who came to play, so for most of the time we had it to ourselves! It is just a neighborhood park, but it has very nice modern equipnent with a soft landing for little girls that want to slide headfirst down the slide!
:-)
I gave this park only 4stars because we are somewhat park connoseurs, and we reserve 5 stars for places like Antioch Park … Or possibly Loose park. But is is a verybpleasant play, and a nice walk if you live in Prairie Village.

Porter Park is great for kids with all the playground equipment and playing fields. It is also great for walkers especially dog walkers.
The loop around the park is marked with markers so you can keep track of your progress if you’re exercising. A nice added plus, the trees are marked with their name. It is nice to see what a dogwood looks like.
This is a very pleasant park except after school time. Then there are a lot of lacrosse, baseball and soccer practices going on. Otherwise, it is a quiet park for a picnic or a walk to get some fresh air.

This is neat and clean park. There are two playground areas for the kids, swings, a huge grass area to play in, a basketball hoop and plenty of benches and shade. There is also a sandbox and it seems local neighbors have donated sand toys for kids to use while playing (i.e., trucks, buckets). There is a water fountain that has an attachment near the ground to fill for your dogs to drink from also. All around a great find.

This is a quiet park in a quiet neighborhood, and it’s got a nice little trail to walk off your last meal. I feel completely safe in this park.
I love the arboretum name plates. I always wondered what the name of the tree was that blessed us with those prickly balls that pierced my bare feet as a child. :) I also now know how different the bark is on a locust from most other trees. Pretty cool.
There are some breaks in the fence on the east and south. There’s a pretty cool creek with a nice concrete easement to walk on. It’s just another way to circumvent the park, but if the park is a bit crowded with kids and you’re looking for something a little more quiet, then it’s a wonderful alternative. There are ramps at each end of the park which make it easy to navigate your way down to the creek.
If you pass other walkaholics they almost all take the time to smile and say hello. It’s a great neighborhood park. I dig it!

So the park is dull. Once it was the location of Porter Elementary School, a mundane two-​story red brick building with an auditorium a la Leave it to Beaver. One imagines it was built to accomodate the Baby Boom.
What remains is the small parking lot. The rectangular structure’s classrooms faced along Tomahawk Road. Check out a satellite shot of the site — the building’s footprint is where the grass is browner. No trees? That’s the former playground out back.
The space has better karma as a somewhat boring dog run with a single picnic table.

One of my new duties is walking the dog during the day, which I thoroughly enjoy, except when it comes time for her to, y’know…
This is one of the joys of living in the suburbs – no public trashcans conveniently placed on the corners. Meaning, walking around with dog sh*t is inevitable for a dog walker. Luckily, I live near Porter Park with MULTIPLE trashcans placed all over their well groomed cement paths. I just take Darby into the park, wander directionless-​ly reading the tree description plates (which I’m becoming pretty smart) until she goes, and then done – into a trashcan. It’s pretty awesome.
I wouldn’t say this is the best park, but it is nice. There is a playground that’s always in use (I swear, no matter what time of day there is a kid swinging). Nice picnic tables, and lots of open grass where you can spot soccer practice, jugglers, I even spotted fire dance practice. But mostly it’s families and teens just hanging out.
Like Jeremy said, don’t plan your day around Porter Park. If you live near it, visit it because it is nice to walk barefoot in the grass sometimes.

Porter Park joins the list of suburb KC parks that all look the same and feel the same.
However, you will find some nice educational touches. Many of the trees (man-​planted, of course) have description plates with their scientific name to help boost your intellect along a walking trail that is pretty mundane. It takes you around in a big circle along the outside of a large cut piece of grass (though it works well for frisbee and soccer).
I only saw one covered picnic area so best not to plan something on the weekend or you’ll be fighting over it. But there’s little to fight over here.