This month’s issue of Next American City has a great article on Atlanta’s Beltline project, a 22-mile loop of parks, trails, transit and medium-density, mixed-use development encircling Atlanta’s urban core. Usual write-ups about the Beltline talk of the transformation potential of the parks, transit and trails of the project. This one goes a bit deeper [...]
Filed under: uncategorized | Tagged: affordable housing, atlanta, beltline | Leave a Comment »
Here’s some this and that, not necessarily a “best of” but just some links from the last year on the eve of a new year: The best park projects may have been on the street. Streetsblog gives their 2008 “Streetsie” Awards, with most of the award going to projects that turn streets into non-auto public [...]
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There’s more evidence that parks help make cities economically prosperous though attracting residents in a new study highlighted by the Boston Globe: In a paper published this month by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, economists Gerald A. Carlino and Albert Saiz looked at 150 metropolitan areas around the United States and found hat those [...]
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MinnPost (of Minnesota) has an interesting article up about the many monuments and statues found within Minneapolis parks. Anyone interested in this subject would find it interesting and probably similar to other cities in how such items come about and have evolved. One particular snippet is that there are so many monuments and statues that [...]
Filed under: facilities, maintenance/management | Tagged: minneapolis, monuments | Leave a Comment »
A local judge’s ruling in Philadelphia has ensured (unless an appeal overturns it) that nearly 20 acres of the city’s Burholme Park will not be leased to the Fox Chase cancer center to construct several buildings. The judge determined that leasing the land would mean breaking the law and the will of Robert W. Ryerss, [...]
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The St. Louis Gateway Arch and grounds sits along the Mississippi River but separated from downtown St. Louis by a sunken freeway. The New York Times reported earlier this month about how the grounds are at the center of a dispute between a group of prominent residents who want to develop parts of the park, [...]
Filed under: partnerships, planning | Tagged: national park service, st. louis | Leave a Comment »
Chicago is embarking on a project that will enhance the connection between the famed Grant Park and Millennium Park, which are separated by a roadway. But what’s most interesting about the project is that it draws from revenue parks receive under leases the city granted to private operators of parking garages. Parking garages are buried [...]
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Many park agencies and park friends groups are trying to go “green” by reducing their carbon footprint. In many ways, this has nothing to do with parks themselves, but tactics to reduce energy consumption that would apply to many other companies or government entities. In any case, the Tacoma, Washington city parks agency just hired [...]
Filed under: maintenance/management | Tagged: sustainability, tacoma | 3 Comments »
San Diego appears to be moving closer to establishing some form of a conservncy for the 1200-acre Balboa Park. An article in the San Diego Union Tribune references a newly released report and says the group could: ….attract new donations and take on tasks that the city’s parks department doesn’t already do – coordinate volunteers, [...]
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Fountains are great in the summer, but when they’re drained for the winter, their empty appearance can make a park feel unattractive and unwelcoming to users. But just because the fountain isn’t running doesn’t mean the park has to stop running as well. In fact, fountains can be adorned with decorations and lights to make [...]
Filed under: facilities, programming | Tagged: fountains, new york city, winter | 3 Comments »
