The New York Times has an article today about private pools in the city that people pay to use, at hotels and the like and which run for as much as $250 for an afternoon. The accommodations at these pools are quite nice, with modern patio furniture, cocktails and a full pool staff. The article [...]
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More parents with children are living in downtown Minneapolis neighborhoods, says a recent article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. We’ve reported on this trend in places such as Portland, and have made the case that cities need to provide the parks and playgrounds that parents want if they are to have truly diverse neighborhoods from [...]
Filed under: facilities, planning | Tagged: density, downtown, minneapolis | Leave a Comment »
Great cities have great parks, and great parks have great horticulture. One person who knows the most about this is Lynden Miller, the director of the Central Park Conservatory Garden and public garden designer of many of New York City’s other outdoor oases. Drawing on lessons learned from revitalizing the Conservatory Garden, Madison Square Park, [...]
Filed under: facilities, green infrastructure, maintenance/management, partnerships | Tagged: books, horticulture | 1 Comment »
Each Year, the Urban Land Institute (ULI) recognizes one urban public space with the Amanda Burden Open Space Award, whose generous $10,000 prize rewards the project that has most “enriched and revitalized its surrounding community.” The award’s twelve person jury recently named its six finalists, chosen from a pool of 88 applicants. These included Pittsburgh’s [...]
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Andrew Turco of the Regional Plan Association has some good thoughts on accommodating soccer as it rises in popularity in the U.S.: Not only does this new population of soccer players put a certain type of new demand on grassy public space, but even within this diverse group of players, different sub-groups place different demands [...]
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What if your office was a park? That’s essentially what the Breakout! Festival in New York City is trying to foster by setting up temporary workspaces in parks, plazas and other public spaces throughout the city. Breakout! is essentially an on-line networking tool that helps people and teams locate stimulating, serene and serendipitous places to [...]
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Winter does not have to be a time for cold weather parks to shut down. Often, a lively winter park can help bring vibrancy to the city around it. Here are five items (especially for center city parks) worth considering for the cold: 1. Ice Skating. Detroit’s Campus Martius Park is a prime example of [...]
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Many may not know that the nation’s only World War One museum is located in Kansas City. MinnPost visited the museum and its accompanying memorial tower, and explains its roots: The original memorial was a local idea, and the complex is still a locally run point of civic pride. Congress gave it the “national” designation [...]
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We’ve been looking into what can make healthy cities, and how park systems can better be a part of this. One feature that’s come up in several cities is the pedestrian/bike bridge. Cities across the country are adding these bridges as part of their trail and park networks – including the Stone Arch Bridge in [...]
Filed under: facilities, transportation | Tagged: bikes, trails, waterfronts | 2 Comments »
The playground group Kaboom! released a report earlier this month featuring 12 best practices in play from across the country. Entitled Play Matters, the report describes successful local initiatives to improve opportunities for play and draws conclusions about why they have worked. The group aimed to address three issues: 1) increasing the quantity of available [...]
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