That's So Cincinnati: Honoring Ezzard Charles, cherry blossoms and new litter program

Cincinnati Parks Foundation Director Jennifer Hafner Spieser​​​​​​​ spends a lot of time in Cincinnati Parks.

It is her job after all. 

The foundation she runs is basically the unsung hero of the city park system, ranked the 8th-best urban park system in the country by the Trust for Public Land.

Spieser talked to The Enquirer's "That's So Cincinnati" podcast this week to detail the foundation's newest projects, a new litter clean-up program and she urged people to go to Ault Park and Mount Echo Park to see the cherry blossom trees, which are blooming now for seven weeks. Ault Park alone has 1,000 cherry blossom trees.

Statue of Ezzard Charles

Set to be unveiled this fall in the West End's Laurel Park, the bronze statue and plaza will commemorate the life and legacy of Cincinnati’s World Heavyweight Boxing Champion, Ezzard Charles.

It's meant to celebrate not just Charles' boxing legacy, but also how he was an ambassador for the community, Spieser said.

"He was bilingual. He was a veteran jazz musician, and would take an ice cream cart around the neighborhood on hot summer days," Spieser said. "So for us at the Foundation, we recognized immediately that it was definitely more than a piece of public art, although we're quite proud of that. It incorporated revitalization of the park."

The project also has running routes that mimic some of the running routes Charles' used to when he was training to fight Rocky Marciano.

"Rocky was running in Central Park, and so as Ezzard Charles took to the Cincinnati Hills and was running throughout Cincinnati," Spieser said.