A newly released study from Britain shows that health inequities are less likely in areas with greater access to green space. In areas with the most green space, the health gap between the richest and poorest people was about half as large as that in the least green areas — an incident rate ratio (IRR) [...]
Filed under: planning | Tagged: health | 1 Comment »
The Sustainable Sites Initiative is inviting public comment on a new proposed set of standards for sustainable landscape design, construction and maintenance. The report, entitled Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks Draft 2008, is the most comprehensive set of national guidelines yet developed for landscape sites, and is available for download at www.sustainablesites.org. (An online feedback form [...]
Filed under: maintenance/management | Tagged: sustainability | Leave a Comment »
Another interesting development from the Nov. 4th election was passage of a constitutional amendment in Georgia allowing more money for Tax Allocation Districts, a form of tax increment financing. The amendment came about after Atlanta’s Beltline parks, trail and transit project was set to use the tool. Says the Atlanta Journal Constitution: TADs encourage development [...]
Filed under: funding | Tagged: atlanta, tif | 3 Comments »
Philadelphia voters overwhelming approved an amendment to the city’s charter to create a unified Department of Parks and Recreation, with 73% of voters backing the measure. Readers may not know that Philadelphia’s parks and recreation system is divided into the Fairmount Park Commission, mainly responsible for more natural lands, and the Department of Recreation, in [...]
Filed under: maintenance/management | Tagged: philadelphia | Leave a Comment »
Yesterday capped off a record-breaking year for voters demonstrating support for open space ballot measures, despite the current economic situation. With help from TPL’s Andrew DuMoulin in the Conservation Finance program, we’ve got the following information. On November 4th, voters backed 62 of 87 (71%) conservation finance ballot measures, which will generate a single-day record [...]
Filed under: funding | Tagged: referendums | 3 Comments »
Streetfilms gives a neat look at the Sunday Parkways program in Chicago, in which about three miles of the city’s parkways were closed to car traffic on four Sundays in October, including through parks. The route cut through neighborhoods lacking park space, and essentially turned the city’s wide boulevards into large linear parks. The video [...]
Filed under: programming, transportation | Tagged: chicago, parkways/boulevards | Leave a Comment »
Whatever the result of today’s election, its worth noting the remarkable amount of people that have visited city parks for mostly Barack Obama rallies this fall. Portland’s Tom McCall Waterfront Park saw 72,000 people this summer, and in recent weeks we’ve seen: 100,000 at the Gateway Arch park in St. Louis, 100,000 at Denver’s Civic [...]
Filed under: programming | Tagged: chicago | Leave a Comment »
The Austin Parks Foundation just hosted an event that combined volunteering and concert programming. Through a partnership with CliffBar, REI and Keep Austin Beautiful, volunteers showed up to clean up the Barton Creek Greenway and then were treated to a concert by nationally known Austin artist Ben Kweller. (Cliff’s Greenotes program helps artists become more [...]
Filed under: maintenance/management, programming | Tagged: austin, volunteers | 1 Comment »
