April’s selections highlight the positive changes good parks bring to cities.

Park improvements can be cost-efficient catalysts for urban revitalization.  Small-scale improvements spur greater civic engagement, leading to even more neighborhood improvements outside the park boundary.   At the other end of the spectrum, some cities have converted entire swaths of industrial or commercial lands into park spaces. Once-secluded riverfronts have become urban front yards, and derelict spaces in central business districts have become green community anchors.  These changes have stimulated even greater retail, cultural, and commercial investments while serving as new centerpieces of civic pride.  This month’s featured parks demonstrate how change, both small and large-scale, can create parks that transform communities.

Fairmount Park's universally accessible playground

Fairmount Park in Riverside, California is a 250-acre refuge designed in 1911 by the Olmsted Brothers firm.  Like many older parks, Fairmount Park experienced decades of decline and deterioration.  The rise in crime and homeless encampments kept residents away.  Ten years ago, the city and its citizens decided to take back their park.  After a series of physical improvements and new cultural programming, residents returned to the park by the thousands.  Building on that success, the city and partners such as The Arc of Riverside County, created a 25,000 square-foot Universally Accessible Playground.  This change has inspired a new gold standard for inclusion and assures that all its citizens can fully enjoy Fairmont Park.  Site furnishings in the park were manufactured by DuMor Inc.

"Finding Nemo" at Coolidge Park

Coolidge Park in Chattanooga, Tennessee was once a military reserve unit site.  Today, the seven-acre park on the north shore of the Tennessee River serves as the centerpiece for revitalization in that area of downtown Chattanooga.  The park includes attractions such as outdoor stages, an interactive fountain, and a restored antique carousel.  Programming includes the city’s annual Fourth of July Concert and Fireworks and many other outdoor programs and festivals.  The park is connected by pedestrian bridge to the city’s successful south shore green space development that includes Ross’ Landing and the Tennessee Aquarium.  Since Coolidge Park opened in 1998, a cultural district and residential development have blossomed adjacent to it.  By changing the use of the riverfront property to an urban park, Chattanooga has created an economic engine fueled by good, green fun.

Frontline Parks is generously supported by DuMor, Inc. and PlayCore.

There are two different approaches that TPL currently uses to determine how well residents are served (i.e. how close they are) by parks. In the first approach, we merely create standard buffers around parks and trails of either an 1/8 mile or 1/4 mile, or “as the crow flies” to determine the population and area of a city within walking distance of a park. But standard buffers do not account for barriers. So TPL has developed a second approach that defines how many people are within actual walking distance, considering barriers such as freeways, water bodies, lack of park access points, or contiguous residential development similar to that described in our earlier post. (To do this, some on the ground research is necessary to determine actual access points and possible barriers beyond water bodies, freeways and the like.)

In this “Network Analyst” approach (which uses software developed by GIS-company ESRI), TPL conducted an analysis of the Santa Fe, New Mexico park system. The picture to the right shows the resulting map – the orange-ish areas represent the “as the crow flies” buffer and the the red areas the “network” approach. The results show that 60 percent of the city’s population is within a quarter-mile of a park, but when you consider barriers, only 31 percent of the population is within an actual 1/4 mile walk.

There are two important ways to use this “real world” analysis: first, it provides a more detailed view of where new parks area needed; and second, it sheds light on where access to existing parks can be improved through removing barriers.

Rachel gives an excerpt from a piece by Charlottesville transportation planner Hannah Tradwell:

Regardless of their size, communities can realize three major benefits from better connectivity: shorter trips; a wider variety of travel choices; and more cost-effective public services and infrastructure. Creating more direct connections shortens travel time, which effectively brings people closer to their destinations. With more available connections, community residents can get to schools, shopping centers, and other spots that may have simply been off their radar before — not because these places were too far away, but because they were too far out of the way.

I would definitely add parks to this list. Excellent parks are accessible parks. The way they interact with the street grid is integral to this. Take two parks in the Twin Cities, Minn. metro (but this could be Anycity, U.S.A.). One is Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis (below, left), surrounded by the grid and the other is Colonial Park (below, right) in the nearby suburb Burnsville. Nearly 100 percent of the first park is accessible by the grid, and the latter is at most five percent accessible via the streets. In this suburban environment with plenty of backyard space, this might work — but if we are to build more compact, walkable cities and densify our suburbs, the need for an accessible park more like the one on the left is much greater.