A few big cities are trying to pass large bond measures to fund parks and recreation capital costs (acquisition, development and/or improvements) and we’ll watch for what happens on election day. Charlotte/Mecklenburg County has a $250 bond for parks up for consideration. Columbus, Ohio has a $124 million referendum. Seattle, Washington one for $145 million. [...]
Filed under: funding | Tagged: milwaukee, referendums, sales tax | 3 Comments »
An excellent example of renewing cities through parks and playgrounds and private-public collaboration to do so was highlighted in Newark, N.J. last week, where The Trust for Public Land dedicated the Mount Vernon School Playground, completing the transformation of a site where the tragic shooting of four young people occurred just over a year ago. [...]
Filed under: renewal | Tagged: newark, playgrounds, schools | 1 Comment »
Community gardening is a growing area in which parks are playing a role. Karrie Jacobs of Metropolis magazine reviews a new book on urban farming and talks about the places she sees as ripe for it. The best thing I learned from Hungry City is that urban agriculture doesn’t need high-end architecture. Steel devoted a [...]
Filed under: facilities, programming | Tagged: community gardening, renewal | Leave a Comment »
While there may be cost savings associated with agency consolidations, this doesn’t mean they are successful. Case in point may soon be an ending to an agreement whereby Buffalo, New York’s parks were signed over to the county for management, as there has been friction between the city and county on maintenance levels and other [...]
Filed under: maintenance/management | Tagged: buffalo, consolidation | Leave a Comment »
The Portland Tribune does a nice job of explaining a pilot program to go pesticide free in a few of Portland’s parks. The basic message is that if you want to go pesticide free it will require both volunteers and money. The parks department has partnered with a nonprofit that has organized 244 volunteers who [...]
Filed under: maintenance/management | Tagged: portland, sustainability | Leave a Comment »
The National Coalition to Save Our Mall (you know, the National Mall) has released a dizzying chart and map showing the overseeing agencies and (lack of) defined boundaries of our nation’s front lawn. The Mall has two historic plans, the L’Enfant Plan (white) and the expanded McMillan Plan (yellow), which provide the basis for defining [...]
Filed under: uncategorized | Tagged: national mall, washington dc | 1 Comment »
New federal exercise guidelines say that children and adolescents should get at least one hour of exercise every day, and adults should get at least two and one-half hours of physical activity per week. Unlike previous efforts, the recommendations de-emphasize gym exercise in favor of activities people are more likely to enjoy to fend off [...]
Filed under: health | Tagged: guidelines, nature | Leave a Comment »
A new playground opened recently in New York City’s Morningside Park that attempts to provide lower play spaces that won’t hurt children when they fall while still providing challenge and fun. Here’s an excerpt from the NY Times article describing it: The jungle gym itself sprawls over a chunk of a block, with the younger [...]
Filed under: facilities | Tagged: new york, playgrounds | 1 Comment »
An earlier post of ours talked about the trend in several cities towards city parks hosting large scale music festivals. The Chicago Sun Times ran a story on the results of this year’s Lollapalooza in Chicago’s Grant Park that reportedly drew 225,000 people: This year’s Lollapalooza rock ‘n’ roll festival was music to the ears [...]
Filed under: funding | Tagged: chicago, festivals | Leave a Comment »
The American Planning Association is out with its Great Places awards that includes 10 “Great Public Spaces” awarded to the following (not all are parks, but pretty close): New York City, NY – Central Park Burlington, VT – Church Street Marketplace Pittsburgh, PA – Mellon Square Portland, OR – Pioneer Courthouse Square Santa Monica, CA [...]
Filed under: planning | Tagged: rankings | Leave a Comment »
