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This thread reminds me I should check out my local park. It has pedal boats, bumper boats, a little zoo and a steam miniature railroad. And paved walking paths and big fields.
One thing to keep in mind is the rise in overweight people and young people and parallel increases in diabetes. It may be a public health priority to get people into the parks and other recreation venues. The problem is for the parks to be attractive enough. Many years ago parks and playgrounds had staff, like playworkers who worked with kids as summer camp counselors do. Now the only staff in most places are the maintenance people. Many big cities continue to have well used parks, and a lot of these city parks are benefiting from local advocacy groups. Some of the more established ones actually operate the park, not just advocate for it. The Central Park Conservancy, in New York, operates that park, and has raised 100s of millions since the early '80s to fund improvements in facilities, landscapes, and programs. In a place like NYC, of course, people are going to use the parks because relatively few have any private outdoor space. But as places become more spread out, gated, car dependent, and so on, there are more and more people with their own yards but far from any park worth traveling to. Parks like Central Park, Golden Gate Park, Fairmount Park, and many other big city parks have beautiful landscapes and waterscapes--as people have been saying, they're not just a ballfield--and that's important. Something unimaginative is going to have a harder time attracting people. The Boston parks commissioner who died a few years back commented that Boston's parks were in danger of being "loved to death", or something like that. Some of them, maybe so, but the huge and beautiful Franklin Park in Roxbury, which is an Olmsted production like Central and Prospect Parks in New York/Brooklyn, is in no such danger. I'm not sure it's even drug dealing or crime, just sketchy neighborhoods, fears, and lots of other nice parks to visit.
What irritates me about parks, and planning for parks, is the instant a space is made available for a public park, this group wants soccer fields, that group wants a paved walking trail, and of course you have to have bleachers and a concession stand and rest rooms. That's fine for some parks, but does every new park have to be overdeveloped? Why not lots of trees, benches, a couple of picnic tables, and maybe a grill?
I have nothing wrong with trails. The rest, I would prefer not having if possible.
Now in the county that I live in, Fairfax County, the park authority here has bought some undeveloped land to save it from sprawl. I suppose having that is also better too in some ways.
Last edited by Joke Insurance; 06-13-2011 at 02:08 PM..
That is true. Some think of them as a place of refuge from the congestion and sprawl in our area.
That definitely applies to Toledo, Ohio where im at.
And I absolutely disagree that parks are becoming obsolete. I think kids might not be utilizing them as much, with numerous factors such as technology/media and obesity, but I think adults still appreciate them, and that their children will as well, as they become young adults, and can separate themselves from Facebook.
Im searching for a new home right now and proximity to a park is high on my priorities.
Most of the parks here are well used. The mild Bay Area climate lets you use them year round. Berkeley also passed a tax override after Prop. 13 for park maintenance, so we get people from other cities where the parks are more rundown, maybe less safe (not a problem, just a fact). Some parks have bad environmental situations, like being next to the freeway, that one doesn't get much use. A tot lot in a middle class neighborhood gets enormous use, people drop off toys there for everybody to use. Playgrounds get used, soccer fields get used, passive recreation areas (grass) get used. Parks that are shared with schoolyards get used.
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That's fine for some parks, but does every new park have to be overdeveloped? Why not lots of trees, benches, a couple of picnic tables, and maybe a grill?
