June 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 52

G R E E N R EVO LUT I O N

Two city leaders in Atlanta
know this for a fact. Deputy Commissioner for Watershed Management Todd Hill puts it this way:
" For us, creating green infrastructure in parks and public spaces
was just such an obvious win-win.
We saw that partnering with parks
and rec could help us better manage stormwater, create amenities
for residents and save taxpayer
money. As the old saying goes, the
benefits are endless. "

Park and recreation
departments can be at the
forefront of showing how we
can work across departments to
activate spaces and places that
everyone of all backgrounds,
ages and abilities can enjoy.
This is why the city's park and
recreation department partnered
with watershed maintenance to
convert a section of its Historic
Fourth Ward into a five-acre
park with a sprawling pond as
its centerpiece (tinyurl.com/
ybce4tmy).
Originally,
city
planners had thought to install
another concrete tunnel to
manage frequent floods. But once
the two agencies joined up with
local residents and environmental
advocates, the plan to create a new
park was born. Now, the area once
dominated by industrial blight is
home to native plants, sculptural
installations and winding paths
that arc over the pond's surface.
Parks Commissioner John Dargle sums it up: " If it hasn't hit
people now, they need to know -
collaborating between agencies to
solve community problems is the
new normal. Park and recreation
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Parks & Recreation

departments can be at the forefront of showing how we can work
across departments to activate
spaces and places that everyone of
all backgrounds, ages and abilities
can enjoy. "
Catherine Zietse of the park and
recreation department in Grand
Rapids, Michigan, notes bringing
water into the open has yet another benefit for cities. " It instills a
passion for clean water and green
space, " says Zietse, " especially in
communities where people may
never have seen a natural body
of water. "
" We'd always focused on putting
things below ground, " agrees her
colleague, Project Manager Karie
Enriquez. " Residents weren't used
to seeing creeks or streams. But we
knew if we created features that
could bring water above ground,
we could use it as an educational
opportunity. "

Collaboration and
Systemic Change
Denver's Cinceré Eades explains
that when she first started with the
city, Public Works and the park department weren't working together
to blend missions to create multiple benefits for communities. But
in 2012, when the city launched its
green infrastructure program, that
began to change. " We were able to
broaden the discussion and create
more collaborative ways to work
together, " says Eades.
Today, Eades sees a very different picture and advises other
communities to make the effort
to have those conversations, even
if they take some work to get off
the ground. " They think differently than I do, " she says. " So if you
mention a challenge you're having
in front of a planner, you never
know what they might be able to

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do to help. When we brainstorm
together, those conversations can
lead you to amazing things. "
The future of equitable communities, great parks and healthy
residents clearly lies dramatically
in increasing collaborative efforts
like this one. But true systemic
change requires more than individual communities' efforts alone. For
Schrass, bringing green infrastructure and its many benefits to scale
involves " tackling issues that are
really rooted in policy. "
" A single project is great for
the area where it's located, " says
Schrass, " but for us to really create
the park systems and communities
we want to see - beautiful, healthy
and resilient - it needs to happen
in every park, in every community,
on the roadways, private land, other types of infrastructure. And that
only comes when we identify the
necessary policy changes, advocate
and see them implemented. "
Willamette Partnership's Barton
Robison, partner, health and outdoors, envisions a similar future.
" Looking ahead, I'd like to see
a movement of cities looking at
health outcomes and intentionally deciding to make communities
more equitable. " Within that future, Robison sees " park agencies
as leaders within local government
in centering community decisions
around health and equity. If we did
that, we would make a lot of progress removing systemic barriers. "
For more information about the
work NRPA is doing to create tools to
promote parks and green infrastructure as vital to improving community
health and well-being, please visit
nrpa.org/GIHealth.
Beth Jacob is Principal at Blue
Stocking Strategy (beth@
bluestockingstrategy.com).

June 2020 - Parks & Recreation

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