This little park occupies the spot where an abandoned house stood for 10 years, just attracting trouble. Now, there's grass, a playground, and room to play.

Formerly the site of a vacant duplex, this park has benches, exercise equipment, lights, decorative landscaping, and security cameras.

This one-acre park had been empty and useless since the 1970s, but is now populated with grassy knolls, a seriously cool playground, an outdoor gym, public art, picnic tables, walking paths, and a merry-go-round.

This long, skinny park does business in the front (workout equipment) and party in the back (a sweet playground with multiple slides). In the middle, there's a big, lush tree.

This .09 acre space is becoming a park in phases. It seems to be pretty much grass and benches right now (and that's not nothing), but eventually there will be more landscaping with drought-tolerant plantings, plus a whimsical fence.

was especially glad that parents can see their kids from any bench in the area.

A nice little oasis with benches, trees, a playground, and exercise equipment.

Exercise equipment and a couple fun slides under the shade are central to this Pacoima park on the former site of a single-family house.

Get a workout in while the kids enjoy the playground!

Yes, we have 50 Parks to thank for the "first real green space" in the Historic Core, the Spring Street Park.

3.4 acres along a freeway doesn't sound like it would be very nice, but this place is actually very chill. It's got native plantings, an outdoor classroom, and picnic areas, and is not too far off the LA River Bike Path. [Image via Scott Lowe]

This park was created primarily to force sex offenders to move, but it's still a park.

The 2,200-square-foot facility here includes a lobby and multi-purpose room, plus an outdoor play area with walking paths, shade, benches. There's also a parking lot.

Right across from the Drum Barracks Civil War Museum in Wilmington, this park has an awesome playground feature that looks like big cartoon trees and a lot of free-play/lounging space.

Google Street View still shows the vacant old house that this park replaced. The playground, with a swirling slide, is the focus of this park, which also has some large trees around the perimeter.

Also known as the South East Valley Skate Park, this concrete skate zone has areas for multiple levels of skate abilities—beginners, too. [Image via California Skateparks]

The 4,000-square-foot, formerly empty lot now holds a playground, exercise equipment, trees, and native plantings.

This gated park has a shaded play area for kids and shaded seating for adults, plus "a small grassy slope for respite." It is located on a spot right across from a senior center, on what was previously a dirt lot.

Covering just a bit more than an acre, this park has some really inventive looking play pieces, according to the Facebook album for its opening, including rolling hills like on the old PBS Teletubbies show and a merry-go-round that looks like the tortilla bowl you get at fast food places serving "taco salad." [Image via Councilman Joe Buscaino]

The old gas station on this site gave way, after much planning, to a park with all sorts of cool stuff, from a fanciful fence to a climbable snake to a free library. [Image via The Pop Hop]

The 2,500-square-foot building and surrounding green space here has something few of the others do: restroom access. The lavatories are inside the building. [Image via Councilwoman Nury Martinez]

This park isn't technically open yet, but it's supposed to be this Saturday. Plans call for lots of trees, a playground, and lots of open space on the previously long-vacant lot.

This park at the *southern edge of Echo Park is scheduled to open on August 1, and when it does, the plans say it will have a waterfall, a stream, and chairs that look like boulders. Rugged!