How many people in your city live within walking distance of the nearest park? In what neighborhoods should park improvements or additions be targeted to maximize impact? How well is your city’s park system serving the needs of its residents? Are there disparities between the inner-city core and the lower-density urban fringe, or between different [...]
Filed under: facilities, funding, planning | Tagged: accessibility, dallas, ParkScore, san francisco | 6 Comments »
Eighteen months ago, the National Park Service (NPS) in conjunction with the Trust for the National Mall, created the 2010 National Mall Plan, a vision for the kinds of resource conditions, visitor experiences, and facilities that would best fulfill the purpose of the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Stretching west from the U.S. Capitol to [...]
Filed under: green infrastructure, planning, renewal | Tagged: design, national mall, washington dc | Leave a Comment »
This is part two of a three-part series looking at the histories of six different city park conservancies. Read part one here. Madison Square Park Conservancy, Madison Square Park, New York Madison Square Park was officially dedicated in 1847. In 1870, soon after the creation of New York City’s first Department of Public Parks, the 6.2-acre [...]
Filed under: green infrastructure, planning, programming, renewal | Tagged: conservancies, denver, new york | Leave a Comment »
The closer the park and the easier to get to, the more likely it will be used. Conversely, people who live far from parks are apt to utilize them less. These obvious truths have implications for public health, but recognizing the problem does not automatically offer simple solutions for mayors, city councils, park directors, or [...]
Filed under: green infrastructure, health, planning, transportation | Tagged: atlanta, chicago, density, greenways, health, minneapolis, portland, seattle, transit | Leave a Comment »
Conservancies are private, non-profit, park-benefit organizations that raise money independent of the city and spend it under a plan of action that is mutually agreed upon with the city. Conservancies do not own any parkland nor do they hold easements on it; the land continues to remain in the ownership of the city, and the [...]
Filed under: green infrastructure, planning, programming, renewal | Tagged: conservancies, detroit, houston | 2 Comments »
A thirteenth excerpt from the recently released book published by Island Press called Urban Green: Innovative Parks for Resurgent Cities. In this post, we look at some cities who have added parkland by closing streets and roads to automobile traffic. In every city there are hundreds of acres of streets and roadways potentially available as park and recreational facilities. While parks [...]
Filed under: planning, programming, transportation | Tagged: atlanta, houston, new york city, portland, road closures, washington dc | 1 Comment »
The Brookings Institution recently released a comprehensive report on metropolitan demographic changes over the past thirty years, which highlighted the increasing concentration of the U.S. population in major metropolitan areas. Overall, metropolitan areas have grown consistently since 1980, and now over 80% of Americans live in metropolitan areas, i.e. cities and their suburbs. Though suburban [...]
Filed under: economics, green infrastructure, planning, renewal | Tagged: density, new york city, santa fe | 2 Comments »
One of New York’s newest parks, Brooklyn Bridge Park blends the historic with the latest in landscape innovation to create what the weblog Gothamist calls “the most spectacular and stunning addition to the city’s parks system in recent memory.” Located on the site of a former port that shuttered in the 1980s due to dramatic [...]
Filed under: economics, funding, green infrastructure, partnerships, planning, renewal | Tagged: Brooklyn Bridge Park, City Parks Alliance, Greater & Greener, manhattan skyline | Leave a Comment »
The New York City Department of Parks & Recreation holds sway over 5,000 different properties encompassing 29,000 acres of land — nearly 15 percent of America’s largest city. The person who just passed the 10-year mark as NYC Parks Commissioner, Adrian Benepe, still lives with his wife and sons in the Upper West Side Manhattan [...]
Filed under: green infrastructure, health, partnerships, planning, renewal, transportation | Tagged: Adrian Benepe, Greater & Greener, Hudson River Greenway, NYC | Leave a Comment »
New York and Chicago are often pitted as rivals with regards to parkland acreage (38,060 acres vs. 11,959 acres, equating to 4.5 and 4.2 acres per 1,000 residents, respectively), and this month was no different. Last week both cities released designs to the community for the next latest and greatest thing in the park world [...]
Filed under: green infrastructure, planning, renewal | Tagged: chicago, elevated trails, new york city | 1 Comment »
