New Visions for Parks

Today's urban parks are becoming settings for activities that beyond recreation: cultural events, afterschool activities, job training, environmental programs, entrepreneurial enterprises, volunteer programs, family picnics, and more. Here you'll find articles and information on the creative roles for parks as important community places, not just recreation spaces.

The Benefits of Parks: Why America Needs More City Parks and Open Space
A highly informative examination of the essential role parks play in urban neighborhoods, this white paper from Trust for Public Land includes chapters on the health, environmental, economic, and social benefits of parks and open spaces.
Creating Great Urban Parks
Kathy Madden and Fred Kent of Project for Public Spaces explain how parks can play new roles as catalysts for both community and development, enriching cities in the process.
Parks for Livable Cities: Lessons from a Radical Mayor
Parks, politics, and the pursuit of happiness: Enrique Peñalosa, former Mayor of Bogotá, Columbia, discusses the critical need for green space in Third World cities and elsewhere. A keynote speech from the 2001 Great Parks/Great Cities conference.
Urban Parks: Innovate Or Stagnate
If the majority of America's parks aren't going to stagnate, they're going to need to learn from those parks that are getting it right.
The Excellent City Park System: What Makes it Great, and How to Get There
A 2003 report on the state of 55 U.S. park systems reveals "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Park Systems" - including equitable park access, user satisfaction, and more. (A follow-up to 2001's Inside City Parks - see below.)
Trust for Public Land
Achieving Great Parks
Charles Jordan, director of Parks and Recreation for Portland, Oregon, speeks to how great parks are essential to city life and urban redevelopment.
Urban Parks of the Past and Future
Galen Cranz, Associate Professor of Architecture at Berkeley, outlines four historical types of urban parks - and her own inspiring vision for the future.
A National Conversation on Local Parks
National Park Service Director Robert G. Stanton's remarks to the U.S. Conference of Mayors, on the roles and responsibility of the NPS in local neighborhoods and cities.
Inside City Parks
A 2001 study of the 15 largest park systems in the country, their challenges, and their successes. Read the full introduction, or purchase online. Trust for Public Land
Good Places
An Urban Parks Institute article covering the four cornerstones of a good place: uses & activities, access & linkage, comfort & image - and perhaps most important - sociability.
Economic Reinvestment in All Open Spaces
Jim Lyons, Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment, USDA, on the need for public investment in what he calls the "greenfrastructure."
The Invisible Park: Revitalizing the Ten Invisible Landscapes
New ways to look at parks and their assets. From Steve Coleman, Executive Director, Washington Parks & People and President, Friends of Meridian Hill.
A Renaissance in Urban Parks
The Christian Science Monitor reports on how green spaces are getting a boost from big city budgets -- and local activists.
Doing It Wrong To Get It Right
Urban critic and journalist Roberta Brandes Gratz on what's needed to truly revitalize our cities.
Building Communities Through Parks
An audio file in which national leaders in urban parks discuss successes and challenges of green space in cities. Originally broadcast on NPR's Diane Rehm show.
Action For Change
An inspirational speech about reconciling a strong vision for the future with the dirty, day-to-day work neccessary to achieve that vision. From Larry B. McNeil, organizer, Industrial Areas Foundation.
What's in a Name?
Lee Springgate, longtime director of Parks and Community Services in Bellevue, WA, shares his view about the basic divide between parks as recreational centers and their value as ecological, meditative places.
Dreaming Spaces Anew
Filmmaker Austin Allen looks at park design and park activities from the point of view of African-Americans.