Parks

...and More Benefits

General information on the range of ways parks act as a positive force in urban areas.
  • Benefits of Green Space

    A significant source info demonstrating that parks and other urban green spaces are necessities, not niceties. Research conducted by the Human-Environment Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois/Urbana Champaign cleverly groups its data into categories like "Plants and Poverty" (more green makes life more manageable); "Vegetation and Violence" ("seeing green prevents people from being mean"); "Girls and Greenery"; "Canopy and Crime" and more. Findings are compiled in short summaries, two-page summaries, and scientific articles - depending on how deep you want to go.

  • Revitalizing Chicago Through Parks and Public Spaces

    Mayor Daley reveals the secrets of his success in making Chicago a city where people want to live. A keynote address from the Urban Parks Institute's "Great Parks/Great Cities" conference in July 2001.

  • Benefits of Urban Open Space

    As part of a broader urban agenda, investing in open space can serve as an anchor for revitalizing neighborhoods and building healthy communities. From our partner, the Trust for Public Land.

  • Healing America's Cities

    TPL's 1994 report on America's urban open-space crisis traces the disinvestment in urban parks, along with the important role parks play in building healthy communities.

  • Endless Benefits

    Benefits information from the National Parks and Recreation Association.

  • Parks Are Central to the Soul of a City...

    ... And to its citizens' souls as well. Remarks by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist Barbara Cloud.

  • Catalogue of Benefits

    Canada's Leisure Information Network offers an online "sample" of its extensive research on the benefits of parks.

  • Marketing Messages on Benefits of Parks

    A series of statements that get to the heart of parks' benefits for individuals, the environment, the economy and more. From Canada's Leisure Information Network.

  • Benefits of Trees

    A page devoted to the social, community, environmental and economic benefits of trees, from the International Society of Arboriculture.

  • Park/Open Space as Percent of City Area:

    A chart from TPL's book Inside City Parks.

  • Urban Rivers: Georgia's Chattahoochee

    The Chattahoochee provides drinking water for half of all Georgians and is Atlanta's most significant natural resource. Read about the Trust for Public Land's efforts to restore this important urban river.

  • St. Louis Community Gardening Study

    This in-progress study of more than 60 community gardens and green spaces provide useful typologies of gardens. It hopes to document positive effects on the local neighborhoods that come from the gardens.
    Gateway Greening