Wraparound Park of El Polvorin

From below or at a distance it looks really nice. Its 5 of 5 stars when clean - a rarity. Up close you see its nicknames "The great Plastic Forest" ; "The wasteland of Polvorin"; " Dog poo park"; " The stain" or " Mosquito hell". The city does an amazing job blitz cleaning this park about every 3 months with a team of gardeners however this never addresses the core problem - solving the problem of the social / psychiatric residences citizens throwing their trash out their windows. The buildings above suffer from a serious lack of community sprit, management, dedicated cleaners & security staff etc. Future plans include a bicycle / walking trail connection along the midline of this park / ridge line to the large Park Rehoyas to the West and connecting along to the upper neighborhood of El Polvorin (namesake). Maybe with more citizens and tourists using the area a greater sense of pride and investments will help reestablish this green connection park. The history of this Park and the area in general is really interesting. Wraparound Park. Former military land. This hillside park wrapping around the South Edge of upper El Polvorin towards Park Rehoyas was engineered with visual appeal as a park to conceal its main purpose of an engineered step system of barrier walls and reinforcements to prevent soil erosion and collapse of hillside and subsequent recent social and commercial housing projects above and below the area. Underneath this wraparound park and throughout the hillside / cliffside running along the South edge line & below lies the volcanic caves of Pim-Pam (volcanic caverns with a high bricked access point requiring a license from the city to enter & explore) mixed with former military installations / bunker placements extended from the former military base that occupied what is now Park Rehoyas. Spotted and with holes like swiss cheese Volcanic caves and bunker systems extend under and around Wraparound Park, the adjacent & current larger Park Rehoyas, the Mata Valley depression to the East and below & towards the Mata Castle, Former military hospital towards the East hillside. Caves and former military bunker systems dot throughout the entire city of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria & whole island. It is rumored that Franco had used political prisoners to connect and extend these systems underground through the entire coastline & interior as a defensive measure against potential invasion plans by the Allies in World War II. This Wraparound Park is capped with a further visable retaining wall / viewing platform jutting in a V-formation out from the rock cliff - preferred by urban climbers for its easy access to a traditional climbing face - with a statue of the Virgin Mary "La Virgin de la Cueva" (inside a lit glass case) at its pinnacle edge of the viewing area. The virgin statue stands above both the local climbing spot and further below the main entrance to the Pim-Pam caves (cueva in Spanish). If you follow along the rock / cliff face to the West you will arrive to the free outdoor Public Elevator that runs up / down the cliffside from Park Rehoyas at the bottom to the upperside West edge of the El Polvorin neighborhood. This elevator having its own storied history for military and defensive purposes.