The area where I live now, in California, is very different from where I grew up on the East Coast. Here there's a small park on the corner just outside my townhouse complex and there are various other parks scattered around the city. The nearest one has a few picnic tables and barbecue grills, a few playground sets and a sandbox for the young ones, and a grassy lawn suitable for kicking balls around, tossing a frisbee, or just laying out on the grass with blankets. California folks aren't quite "50+ is WARM!" like you Bostonians, but in the warmer weather it's popular with parents with little kids, teens hanging out on their own, and older adults who just want a stroll in the fresh air.

Compare that to the town where I grew up, which I go back to about once a year because my youngest sister and my mom still live there, and it's now got... one park, that I'm aware of. A town of 50,000 people with one little park. Fortunately it's close to where my sister lives, so her kids are able to go there on the regular when they get tired of playing video games.