Residents in downtown Los Angeles are leaping for joy because a brand new park is coming to the revitalized historic core. Spring Street Park, which broke ground last October, will be the first public park in the neighborhood. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, 15,000 residents moved into downtown between 2000 and 2010, without the [...]
Filed under: funding, green infrastructure, planning | Tagged: developer impact fees, downtown, los angeles, research | Leave a Comment »
An excerpt from The Trust for Public Land’s report From Fitness Zones to the Medical Mile: How Urban Park Systems Can Best Promote Health and Wellness. We wrote a preview of this report in an earlier post. In this post, we look at a mixture of uses and a maximum amount of programming. Mixing uses in parks [...]
Filed under: facilities, green infrastructure, health, partnerships, planning, programming | Tagged: cincinnati, design, fitness zones, health, los angeles, mental health, research | Leave a Comment »
The Trust for Public Land has released its most recent data on city park systems from across the country, showing that the 100 largest cities added more than 120 parks in the past year. Despite aggregate increases in acreage and facilities across the U.S., many city park departments are struggling with funding shortages. Operational spending [...]
Filed under: economics, facilities, funding | Tagged: City Park Facts, research, usership | 2 Comments »
The Trust for Public Land’s Center for City Park Excellence performed a study for the Association of Bay Area Governments, one component of which was identifying examples of how recently completed infill parks were financed. We will be publishing each of the four case studies (see the first one here), with Windsor Town Green as our [...]
Filed under: funding, partnerships, planning | Tagged: research, san francisco, smart growth | 2 Comments »
We’ve written before about the need for urban parks to do more for public health. A new report by the Center for City Park Excellence, From Fitness Zones to the Medical Mile: How Urban Park Systems Can Best Promote Health and Wellness, looks at how individual parks and entire city park systems help people be healthier and more fit. The [...]
Filed under: green infrastructure, health, planning | Tagged: design, health, mental health, research | 1 Comment »
In early February, the New York City Council (36-12) approved, and Mayor Bloomberg signed, a ban on smoking in the city’s parks, beaches, pedestrian malls and plazas. Effective as of May 23rd, the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation can now impose $50 fines on rule breakers. Given what we know about the health value [...]
Filed under: health | Tagged: health, legal, new york city, research | 4 Comments »
According to a survey by The Trust for Public Land’s Center for City Park Excellence, almost half of the nation’s largest park departments do not spend any money on public outreach. Counting those that do, the average amount spent on marketing comes to only 46 cents per resident per year. Is marketing a smart investment [...]
Filed under: economics, health, partnerships, programming | Tagged: denver, health, louisville, marketing, research, san antonio | 1 Comment »
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 [...]
Filed under: green infrastructure, planning, renewal | Tagged: atlanta, chicago, houston, minneapolis, new york city, parking, portland, research | 1 Comment »
As cities vie to attract talented college graduates and sustain population growth, they are focusing attention on parks to increase livability and support a strong economy. Since parks must be convenient if they are to provide their benefits, many places have set goals for the maximum distance any resident should be from the nearest park. [...]
Filed under: planning, transportation | Tagged: density, research, walkability | Leave a Comment »
The USDA Forest Service – Northern Research Station (NRS) released a report entitled Sustaining America’s Urban Trees and Forests, offering an overview of the current status and environmental, financial and health benefits of America’s urban forests and how these forests vary in different regions of the country. The report defined urban forest as “all publicly [...]
Filed under: green infrastructure | Tagged: research, sustainability | 3 Comments »
