Posted on May 19, 2010 by elissahoagland
Last week, the Childhood Obesity Task Force released the action plan for the First Lady’s “Let’s Move” initiative. The plan contains 70 recommendations, including greater availability of healthy food, clearer nutritional information, and increased recreational opportunities for children, including improved access to safe parks, playgrounds, and indoor and outdoor recreational facilities. The Washington Post reported [...]
Filed under: health, partnerships | Tagged: federal policy, health, michelle obama | Leave a Comment »
Posted on April 28, 2010 by elissahoagland
Commemorating the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recognized 22 of New York’s residents and community organizations for their work in environmental protection with its “Environmental Quality Award.” Among those recognized were a handful of outstanding organizations who work in New York City’s parks and public spaces, including GrowNYC, Brooklyn’s El [...]
Filed under: green infrastructure, partnerships, renewal | Tagged: awards, epa | Leave a Comment »
Posted on April 6, 2010 by Ben Welle
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 »
Posted on March 25, 2010 by Ben Welle
Post by Stephen Miller, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy Last month, more than one hundred advocates of urban pathways, greenways and trails from the private and public sectors met in New Orleans for the first in a series of meetings to discuss best practices that encourage physical activity on shared-use pathways in urban neighborhoods. Topics of discussion included [...]
Filed under: partnerships, planning, transportation | Tagged: bikes, trails | Leave a Comment »
Posted on February 26, 2010 by Ben Welle
There’s a nice story by public radio station KPCC in Los Angeles on “Fitness Zones” being built in the city’s parks. TPL has been working with the city to bring exercise equipment that is simple, durable and still attractive to use for exercising. The article touches on how they could be of some help in [...]
Filed under: health, partnerships | Tagged: los angeles | 2 Comments »
Posted on October 16, 2009 by Ben Welle
Schenley Plaza in Pittsburgh continues to garner national and now international praise. The parking lot-to-park project of the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy won a 2009 International Award for Livable Communities (the “LivCom” Awards) this past week in the Czech Republic and last month won the Pinnacle Award from the International Downtown Association. “It has been wonderful [...]
Filed under: international, partnerships, renewal, transportation | Tagged: downtown, parking, pittsburgh | 2 Comments »
Posted on October 15, 2009 by Ben Welle
A unique project in New York City has been devising better ways to engage with immigrant communities. The Immigrants & Parks Collaborative, funded by the JM Kaplan Fund, City Parks Foundation and New York Immigration Coalition, has supported work with ten community-based organizations in eight parks to provide a dedicated staff person for participatory planning, [...]
Filed under: partnerships, planning | Tagged: immigrants, new york | Leave a Comment »
Posted on October 6, 2009 by Ben Welle
The sculpture garden-style park is being taken to a whole new level with the Virginia Fairbanks Art and Nature Park in Indianapolis. The new 100-acre area was formerly a gravel pit, quarry and construction site. The park will be run by the Indianapolis Museum of Art and will play host to natural amenities and art [...]
Filed under: facilities, partnerships | Tagged: Indianapolis, public art | Leave a Comment »
Posted on September 28, 2009 by Ben Welle
For the park “friends,” conservancies and advocacy groups out there, you may have heard of the website, Guidestar.org, where donors can learn about non-profit organizations. Increasingly, those wishing to give money to their preferred causes are researching groups through on-line resources that can give them access to IRS 990 forms and the like. Many organizations [...]
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Posted on September 1, 2009 by Ben Welle
EPA administrator Lisa Jackson urged in the Huffington Post recently that environmentalism and climate change efforts ought to connect with a more diverse audience. She writes: Over the years, environmentalism has largely been seen as an enclave of the privileged. The term “environmentalism” brings to mind pristine wilderness and wide-open landscapes. What doesn’t come to [...]
Filed under: green infrastructure, partnerships, programming | Tagged: climate change | Leave a Comment »
