Mapping-extraordinaire Eric Fischer has mapped the pictures taken by local residents versus tourists, and the results reinforce the belief that parks can be major contributors to a city’s tourism. A look through the maps of 60 different cities shows concentrations of web-posted tourist pictures in parks and key public spaces (tourist pictures are in red, [...]
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Active Living Research is out with a synthesis of research showing that communities economically benefit from parks and walkability. The report, entitled The Economic Benefits of Open Space, Recreation Facilities and Walkable Community Design was led by Lilly Shoup of the University of Maryland and Reid Ewing of the University of Utah. For any park [...]
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The Chicago Tribune describes the nearly crazed demand for the Chicago Park District’s recreational programming. Th article indicates that a rush to get into classes was happening in “thousands of homes across the city Monday, as parents frantically attempted to get their children into the 10-week spring classes including gymnastics ($47), basketball ($20) and children’s [...]
Filed under: economics, health, programming | Tagged: chicago, technology in parks | Leave a Comment »
Sometimes a picture speaks volumes. Here at this blog, we like it when we can use images that say something so we don’t have to. In this case, we just came across the cover of Alaska Airlines magazine, which features an article on San Francisco’s parks. The article (mainly about the city’s parks) isn’t available [...]
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A newly-formed group out of Atlanta is proposing that the federal government assist local communities by taking troubled commercial real estate properties off the hands of banks and convert them into public parks. An article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution describes how Michael Messner, a Georgia Tech alum commissioned the school’s Research Institute to investigate [...]
Filed under: economics, renewal, stimulus funds | Tagged: federal policy | 6 Comments »
Should small projects be the big attention getters of those trying to remake their cities? Citing the success of Bryant Park in New York, Campus Martius in Detroit and Discvovery Green in Houston, Andrew Manshel suggests just that in City, saying: Small changes are appealing for many reasons. They’re cheap, for one thing. Also, what [...]
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Writing for the Gotham Gazette, Anne Schwartz reflects on “stay-cationing” and the role of parks in finding close-to-home get-aways. On the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, some friends and I went bicycling on Governors Island. We pedaled around and through the small island, along the harbor and past shady lawns and historic buildings. Taking a [...]
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Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett unveiled a proposal to increase the local sales tax in that city to pay for $770 billion in big downtown improvements from transit to a new $130 million, 70-acre park to entice development. From The Oklahoman: The plan unveiled Thursday by Cornett and council members includes a massive downtown park, [...]
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Neal Peirce surveys the country and finds some big things going on in the world of city parks in his weekly column on urban affairs. He starts in St. Louis, writing about its new downtown city park: Citygarden, just west of the famed Gateway Arch on the Mississippi River, has drawn crowds of people–a cross-section [...]
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The Washington Post ran a nice story on residents waking up at very early hours and even camping out on top of picnic benches to grab space for their outings on Labor Day in the District of Columbia’s parks. Here’s the lead paragraphs: When James Caldwell has a yen for a weekend cookout at Anacostia [...]
Filed under: economics, facilities | Tagged: washington dc | 1 Comment »
