Cities Can Have Health Promoting Park Systems Through Proximity, Accessibility, and Co-Location

Posted on April 20, 2012 by Peter Harnik

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 [...]

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A Tale of Two Trails: Designs Released for New York’s High Line Phase III and Chicago’s Bloomingdale Trail and Park

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Coleen Gentles

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 [...]

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Creating Parkland via Rail Trails

Posted on September 9, 2011 by Peter Harnik

A ninth 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 created parkland by converting abandoned railroad corridors into rail trails. In 1963 famed Morton Arboretum naturalist May Theilgaard Watts wrote a letter to the editor of the Chicago Tribune. [...]

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Grapeland Water Park and Mary Bartelme Park Selected as July’s “Frontline Parks”

Posted on July 28, 2011 by Angelina Horn

Each month, City Parks Alliance recognizes two “Frontline Parks” to promote and highlight inspiring examples of urban park excellence, innovation, and stewardship across the country.  The program also seeks to highlight examples of the challenges facing our cities’ parks as a result of shrinking municipal budgets, land use pressures, and urban neighborhood decay. July’s Frontline [...]

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Pavement in the Park: How Removing Parking Adds Acreage

Posted on June 1, 2011 by Peter Harnik

A seventh 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 created parkland by removing excess parking spaces. Do you park in your park? Does it seem to be a parking lot more than a park, a lot? Urban park [...]

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Learning to Share: Designing Schoolyards for More Than Just Recess

Posted on May 2, 2011 by Peter Harnik

A sixth 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 created parkland by sharing schoolyards with their parks departments. Schoolyards are large, flat, centrally located open spaces with a mandate to serve the recreational needs of schoolchildren. Great schoolyards–the rare [...]

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Chicago’s Green Mayor: The Legacy of Richard Daley

Posted on October 27, 2010 by John Crotty

An editorial discussing Daley’s tenure as Mayor of Chicago and the impact he will leave on city parks. As Mayor Richard M. Daley’s 21-year reign over the city of Chicago comes to a close, multiple publications are evaluating his impact and legacy – from a comprehensive assessment of a variety of issues in the New York [...]

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Recreational Programs a Hot Commodity in Chicago

Posted on March 3, 2010 by Ben Welle

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 [...]

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Chicago’s Emerging Riverfront

Posted on July 3, 2009 by Ben Welle

The Chicago Tribune takes a look at the city’s new Riverwalk along the Chicago River. A series of parks, walkways and plazas that give continuous access to a river that slithers through forest of skyscrapers, these places are giving the city an entirely different feel. The article gives a good overview of the track the [...]

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Parks in the Sky

Posted on November 30, 2008 by Ben Welle

A New York Times article today spotlights the new High Line park built atop an elevated rail line in Manhattan. The High Line offers a retreat from street life, a bucolic space floating 30 feet in the air with Hudson River views. Yet it retains many elements of its gritty past: graffiti is prevalent on [...]

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