June 2014 - Parks & Recreation - 61

health ailments. Parks officials are
working with a variety of partners
to build the 50 new parks, including the Trust for Public Land and
area nonprofits, which are providing funding and other resources to
help develop parks for the city.
So far, 21 of the 50 planned parks
have been completed and are open
to the public. Los Angeles isn't
stopping at 50, however; 11 additional parks are being incorporated
into the plan. According to Shull,
670,000 people live within a halfmile of these 61 sites. " We're putting
the [parks] in the right spot. In these
communities, 170,000 people previously did not have a park within a
half-mile of their home, " he said.
Such access to parks will allow new
ways for children to play and new
opportunities for physical activity.
In Cleveland, Ohio, struggles with
foreclosures are being turned into a
positive influence, as 20,000 vacant
lots take on new lives as community
gardens, vineyards and even a sixacre farm for refugees. " Part of our
planning is, how can we be a stopping point on someone's bike ride
or jog? How can we bring people to
an area that maybe wasn't as highly
visited and give them a reason to go
somewhere else? " shares Cleveland
Metroparks Chief Operating Officer
Joe Roszak.
Florida's Miami-Dade County
similarly struggles with congestion
and obesity and has the added complication of exceptional population
growth as people move back into the
city. Jack Kardys, director of the Department of Parks, Recreation and
Open Spaces for Miami-Dade County, said these problems create an opportunity to use public spaces to create more livable neighborhoods.
" Miami-Dade County is a
car-driven, suburban sprawl community with an outdated zoning

NRPA staffers Matt Rumbaugh (left) and Anna Brent (right), as well as Board Chair Robert
F. Ashcraft, Ph.D. (center, in black), listen as Houston Parks and Recreation Director Joe
Turner (center, in white) discusses his agency's land-procurement strategies and ways
the park department works with the city's zoning laws for the benefit of residents.

NRPA and APA intend
this roundtable to serve
as a kickoff event for
a larger Urban Parks
Campaign.
code, plain and simple, " he said.
" We have nowhere to go but up.
It has allowed us to rethink and
reshape our development patterns
around density. " They have incorporated parks and recreation initiatives firmly into their General Plan
of Development, and are encouraging all cities and municipalities
within their jurisdiction to incorporate these concepts to provide
healthier public spaces into their
Master Plans. They regard their
park and open space Master Plan as
" a health plan, " said Kardys.
Parks Shaping Cities
The first-of-its-kind roundtable left

participants and invited guests buzzing
with the possibilities for new collaboration between planners, parks leaders
and national experts on economic development, revitalization, health benefits and green infrastructure solutions
for cities across the country. NRPA
and APA intend this roundtable to
serve as a kickoff event for a larger Urban Parks Campaign that will include
development of new evidenced-based
research as well as new tools and resources for professional planners, park
designers and park administrators.
APA and NRPA expect to reach out
to other disciplines, including landscape architects, health professionals
and civil engineers, among others. If
this roundtable is an accurate measure
of the opportunities and possibilities,
the role of parks in shaping successful
cities will grow.
Please visit www.nrpa.org/AboutNRPA/Impacting-Communities for a
white paper on the roundtable.
Dena Levitz is a freelance writer based in
Washington, D.C. (denalev@gmail.com).

W W W. N R PA . O R G | J U N E 2 0 1 4 |

Parks & Recreation

June 2014 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of June 2014 - Parks & Recreation