Frontline Park for May: Hunting Park

Posted on May 29, 2012 by Angelina Horn

Each month, City Parks Alliance recognizes a “Frontline Park” to promote and highlight inspiring examples of urban park excellence, innovation, and stewardship across the country. The program also seeks to highlight examples of the challenges facing our cities’ parks as a result of shrinking municipal budgets, land use pressures, and urban neighborhood decay. This 87-acre [...]

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March’s Frontline Park: Franklin Park

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Angelina Horn

At 527 acres, Franklin Park is the largest greenspace in Boston, boasting a 220-acre forest, an 18-hole golf course, the regional zoo, tennis and basketball courts, baseball diamonds, a cricket pitch, miles of woodland trails, picnic areas, and playgrounds. It is the only park in Boston where one can bicycle and barbecue. Designed by Frederick [...]

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Parks After Dark: Balancing Safety, Efficiency, and Dark Skies

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Ryan Donahue

The issue of lighting in urban parks can be surprisingly contentious. One school of thought is that parks are supposed to offer a refuge within the city, a piece of nature untarnished by the glare of neon, light-emitting diodes, and halogen. Dark-sky advocates argue that while some parks might need more light than others, no [...]

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City Parks Alliance Seeks Nominations for “Frontline Parks” Section on Website

Posted on December 2, 2011 by Angelina Horn

“FRONTLINE PARKS” highlights urban parks that are creating economic, environmental and social capital through new kinds of partnerships.  This feature on CPA’s website (www.cityparksalliance.org) promotes inspiring examples of urban park excellence, innovation, and stewardship across the country. Twelve parks – one each month – will be featured on CPA’s website home page in 2012.  Each [...]

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Fairmount Park and Coolidge Park Are April’s “Frontline Parks”

Posted on April 20, 2011 by Angelina Horn

Each month, City Parks Alliance recognizes two “Frontline Parks“ to promote inspiring examples of urban park excellence, innovation and stewardship across the country in the face of shrinking municipal budgets, land use pressures and urban neighborhood decay. April’s selections highlight the positive changes good parks bring to cities. Park improvements can be cost-efficient catalysts for [...]

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Velociraptors in Prospect Park?

Posted on April 1, 2011 by Coleen Gentles

Unicorns, saber-toothed tigers and velociraptors, oh my! Last summer, the self-appointed “Non-Traditional Park Preservation Task Force” posted signs in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park warning users to stay on the paths or risk becoming prey to some unexpected four-legged creatures. The signs were posted to discourage vandals from breaking the fences, traipsing around the ravine and disturbing the newly replanted top soil. [...]

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Park Ranger Shortages in Urban National Parks

Posted on August 17, 2010 by Coleen Gentles

It is easy to forget the many different types of parkland located in urban areas. Besides municipal parks, there are also state, county, regional and national parks. In the 85 largest cities, 15 cities are home to 48 National Park units, which include monuments, houses, forts, battlefields and preserves. Washington, D.C. has by far the [...]

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Seattle’s Downtown Park Rangers

Posted on September 19, 2008 by Ben Welle

An article in the Seattle Times describes the city’s attempt to enliven its downtown parks by introducing seven park rangers, “functioning as part security guards, part social workers,” in ten parks in and near downtown. Rangers patrol in pairs between 7:30 a.m. and 8:30 p.m……They begin their shifts by rousing homeless people. The rangers ask [...]

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Alleys as Parks

Posted on September 13, 2008 by Ben Welle

An article in the LA Times describes efforts in Los Angeles to convert alleys to park-like spaces, an opportunity quantified quite well. There are few cities whose alleys offer more possibility than Los Angeles. The USC Center for Sustainable Cities, which is leading the alley campaign here, found recently that there are 12,309 blocks of [...]

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Reducing Violence

Posted on September 9, 2008 by Ben Welle

An article in today’s LA Times has LA Mayor Villaraigosa crediting a summertime recreation program in parks with a reduction in violent crime.  The Summer Night Lights program offered speical movie nights and other events geared towards at-risk youth until midnight four nights a week during peak time for gang activity. As the article states, [...]

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