Why America Needs More City Parks and Open Space

The Benefits of Parks: Why America Needs More City Parks and Open Space BY Paul M. Sheerer Published by: 116 New Montgomery Street Fourth Floor San Francisco, CA 94105 (415) 495-4014 www. Tip. Organization 02006 the Trust for Public Land †Reprint of â€Å"Parks for People† white paper, distributed In 2003. Chapter by chapter list Forward: Will Rogers, President, Trust for Public Land 5 Executive Summary 6 America Needs More City Parks U. S. Urban communities Are Park-Poor Low-Income Neighborhoods Are Desperately Short of Park Space Case Study: New Parks for Los Angles The Public Wants More Parks 8History of America's City Parks: Inspiration, Abandonment, Revival The Decline of City Parks A Revival Begins Budget Crises Threaten City Parks 10 Public Health Benefits of City Parks and Open Space America's Twin Plagues: Physical Inactivity and Obesity Access to Parks Increases Frequency of Exercise Exposure to Nature and Greenery Makes People Healthier 12 Economic Benefits of Parks 14 Increased Property Values Property Values in Low-Income Urban Areas Property Values at the Edges of Urban Areas Effects on Commercial Property Values Economic Revitalization: Attracting and Retaining Businesses and Residents TourismBenefits Environmental Benefits of Parks Pollution Abatement and Cooling Controlling Stemware Runoff 17 Social Benefits of Parks Reducing Crime Recreation Opportunities: The Importance of Play Creating Stable Neighborhoods with Strong Community 18 Conclusion 20 Notes 21 Bibliography 24 3 Forward At the turn of the twentieth century, most of Americans lived in rustic territories and humble communities, moderately near the land. Toward the start of the 21st century, 85 urgent need of spots to encounter nature and revive ourselves in the out-of-doors.The development of America as a urban country was foreseen by Frederick Law Limited and other nineteenth century park visionaries, who gave us New Work's Central Park, San Franciscans Golden Gate Park, and comparative stupendous parks in urban areas the country over. They were nursery workers and originators yet in addition ministers for the intensity of parks, terminated from inside by the understanding that they were molding the nature of American lives for a long time into the future. In the perspective on these park visionaries, parks were not â€Å"amenities. They were necessities, giving diversion, motivation, and basic reprieve from the city boom and clamor. What's more, the visionaries were especially worried that parks be accessible to the entirety of a city occupants particularly the individuals who didn't have the assets to run away to the open country. As populace moved to suburbia after World War II, this vision of parks for all blurred. Numerous urban areas lost the assets to make new stops. Furthermore, in the new rural areas, the rambling scenes of bending CUL-De-sacs were broken for the most part by square shaped strip malls and solid stopping lots.The opportunit y has arrived for Americans to rededicate themselves to the vision of parks for all the country's kin. As the activity's driving protection bunch making parks in and around urban areas, the Trust for Public Land (TIP) has propelled its Parks for People activity in the conviction that each American youngster ought to appreciate advantageous access to a close by park or play area. This white paper diagrams how frantic the need is for city parks-particularly in downtown neighborhoods. What's more, it proceeds to depict the social, ecological, monetary, and medical advantages parks bring to a city and its people.TIP trusts this paper will produce conversation about the requirement for parks, brief new exploration on the advantages f parks to urban areas, and fill in as a kind of perspective for government pioneers and volunteers as they present the defense that parks are basic to the wellbeing and prosperity everything being equal. You will discover more data about the requirement for c ity parks and their advantages in the Parks for People segment of Tap's Web website (www. Tip. Organization/poor) where you can likewise pursue Parks for People data and bolster Tap's Parks for People work.TIP is pleased to feature the requirement for parks in America's urban areas. A debt of gratitude is in order for Joining our push to guarantee a recreation center close enough for each American home. Will Rogers President, the Trust for Public Land City stops and open space improve our physical and mental wellbeing, fortify our networks, and cause our urban areas and neighborhoods increasingly appealing spots to live to and work. In any case, excessively barely any Americans can appreciate these advantages. 80% of Americans live in metropolitan regions, and a considerable lot of these regions are seriously ailing in park space.Only 30 percent of Los Angles occupants live inside strolling separation mile. Low-pay neighborhoods populated by minorities and ongoing migrants are parti cularly shy of park space. From a value viewpoint, there is a solid need to change this unevenness. In Los Angles, white neighborhoods appreciate 31. 8 sections of land of park space for each 1,000 individuals, contrasted and 1. 7 sections of land in African-American neighborhoods and 0. 6 sections of land in Latino neighborhoods. This biased conveyance of park space hurts the inhabitants of these networks and makes considerable expenses for the country as a whole.U. S. Voters have over and again demonstrated their readiness to raise their own charges to pay for new or improved parks. In 2002, 189 protection financing measures showed up on polling forms in 28 states. Voters endorsed 75% of these, producing $10 billion in preservation related subsidizing. Huge numbers of the country's extraordinary city parks were worked in the second 50% of the nineteenth century. Urban organizers accepted the parks would improve general wellbeing, calm the worries of urban life, and make an exhibit ing open space where rich and poor would blend on equivalent terms.By the mid-twentieth century, city parks fell into decay as individuals fled downtowns for suburbia. Suburbia fared no better, as individuals accepted that lawns would meet the prerequisite for open space. Over the recent decades, enthusiasm for city parks has resuscitated. Governments and city bunches around the nation have revalidated run-down city parks, constructed greengages along streams, changed over surrendered railroad lines to trails, and planted network gardens in empty lots.But with the current monetary downturn, states and urban communities confronting serious spending emergencies are cutting their park burning through, compromising the strength of existing parks, and shortening the making of new stops. Solid proof shows that when individuals approach parks, they practice more. Ordinary physical movement as been appeared to build wellbeing and diminish the danger of a wide scope of ailments, including co ronary illness, hypertension, colon malignancy, and diabetes. Physical movement additionally soothes manifestations of gloom and tension, improves mind-set, and upgrades mental well-being.Beyond the advantages of activity, a developing group of exploration shows that contact with the normal world improves physical and mental wellbeing. Regardless of the significance of activity, just 25 percent of American grown-ups take part in the suggested degrees of physical action, and 29 percent participate in no relaxation time physical action. The inactive way of life and undesirable eating regimen of Americans have delivered a scourge of stoutness. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has required the formation of more stops and play areas to help battle this epidemic.Numerous contemplates have demonstrated that parks and open space increment the benefit of neighboring private property. Developing proof focuses to a comparable advantage on business property estimation. The accessi bility of park and entertainment offices is a significant personal satisfaction factor for organizations picking where to find offices and for knowledgeable people picking a spot to live. City stops, for example, San Notation's Riverview Park regularly become significant the travel industry draws, contributing intensely Green space in urban territories gives generous ecological benefits.Trees decrease air contamination and water contamination, they help keep urban areas cooler, and they are an increasingly viable and more affordable approach to oversee stemware spillover than building frameworks of solid sewers and seepage trench. City stops additionally produce significant social and network improvement benefits. They make downtown neighborhoods increasingly bearable; they offer recreational open doors for in danger youth, low-salary youngsters, and low-pay families; and they give places n low-pay neighborhoods where individuals can feel a feeling of community.Access to open parks and recreational offices has been emphatically connected to decreases in wrongdoing and specifically to diminished Juvenile misconduct. Network gardens increment inhabitants' feeling of network possession and stewardship, give a concentration to neighborhood exercises, uncover downtown youth to nature, associate individuals from assorted societies, diminish wrongdoing by tidying up empty parts, and assemble network pioneers. Considering these advantages, the Trust for Public Land requires a recovery of the city parks development of the late nineteenth century.We welcome all Americans to Join the push to bring parks, open spaces, and greengages into the country's neighborhoods where everybody can profit by them. 7 The occupants of numerous U. S. Urban areas need sufficient access to parks and open space close to their homes. In 2000, 80 percent of Americans were living in metropolitan territories, up from 48 percent in 1940. 1 The recreation center space in a significant number of th ese metropolitan zones is terribly lacking. In Atlanta, for instance, parkland covers just 3. 8 percent of the city area.Atlanta has no open green space bigger than 33% of a square mile. 2 The city has just 7. Sections of land of park space for each 1,000 occupants, contrasted and a 19. 1 section of land normal for other medium-low populace thickness urban areas. 3 The story is a lot of the equivalent in Los Angles, San Jose, New Orleans, and Dallas. Indeed, even in urban communities that have generous park space all in all, the inhabitants of numerous areas need access to close by parks. In New York City, for instance, about portion of the city 59 network board distri