How parks can strengthen or weaken neighborhoods, and what to do about them.

1. Sustainable
Hamilton
Reinventing Urban Public Spaces:
Neighborhood Parks
How parks can strengthen or weaken
neighborhoods, and what to do about them
©2010, Sustainable Hamilton 1

2. Sustainable
Hamilton
How diversity and urban
parks enliven urban life
 The more successfully a city mingles everyday diversity
of uses and users in its everyday streets, the more
successfully, casually (and economically) its people
thereby enliven and support well-located parks that can
thus give back grace and delight to their neighborhoods
instead of vacuity.
 Lowly, unpurposeful and random as they appear,
sidewalk contacts are the small change from which a
city’s wealth of public life must grow.
 Jane Jacobs, “The Death and Life of Great American Cities”, 1961
©2010, Sustainable Hamilton

3. How urban
Sustainable
Hamilton
neighborhood parks
impact home prices
 The real estate market consistently demonstrates that
many people are willing to pay a larger amount for a
property located close to parks and open space areas
than for a home that does not offer this amenity.
 Passive neighborhood parks add the most value, active
parks add the least.
 Of 30 studies of parks since 1870, 25 support these
conclusions.
 John L. Crompton, “The Impact of Public Spaces on Property
Values” Texas A&M University, 2007
©2010, Sustainable Hamilton

4. Sustainable
Hamilton
How urban parks help
build social capital
 [P]arks help build and strengthen ties among
community residents by bringing people together,
including those who are otherwise divided by race or
class, and by helping them work together on common
projects.
 These ties—often labeled “social capital”—represent
subtle but important assets for a community. They
provide avenues through which information, values, and
social expectations flow, and they empower people to
tackle communitywide problems, embark on collective
actions, and advocate effectively for their community.
 Chris Walker “The Public Value of Urban Parks” , Wallace
Foundation and the Urban Institute, 2004
©2010, Sustainable Hamilton

5. Sustainable
Hamilton
How urban parks keep
older adults engaged
 Older adults who have more exposure to
green common space feel a stronger sense of
community with their neighbors
 Results are independent of how they feel
about their personal health or their fear of
crime
 Effect is increased when older adults are
involved in care of the parks
 Byoung Suk-Kweon, et al, “Green common spaces and the social
integration of inner-city older adults”, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign, 1998
©2010, Sustainable Hamilton

6. Sustainable
Hamilton
Neighborhood Parks as
Neighborhood Assets
 Clean and safe neighborhood parks CAN but
don’t always add value
 Active parks are potential community assets
but rarely neighborhood assets
 Only passive parks can be neighborhood assets
 Most are neighborhood liabilities
©2010, Sustainable Hamilton

7. Passive urban
Sustainable
Hamilton
neighborhood parks: assets
or liabilities?
 Active parks are potential community assets
but rarely neighborhood assets
 Only passive urban neighborhood parks can be
neighborhood assets
 “Asset “ parks can boost nearby property
values up to 30%
 “Liability” parks can damage nearby property
values
 Safety, siting, design, and appeal to diverse
uses and needs differentiate “asset” parks
from “liability” parks
©2010, Sustainable Hamilton

8. Passive urban
Sustainable
Hamilton
neighborhood parks are
assets when they...
 Act as a safe,
common meeting
ground to connect
homes and
businesses
 Become
psychological
extensions of our
backyards and front
porches
©2010, Sustainable Hamilton

9. Passive urban
Sustainable
Hamilton
neighborhood parks are
liabilities when they are...
 Unplanned
 Badly sited
 Uninspired
 Uninviting
 Unsafe
©2010, Sustainable Hamilton

10. Sustainable
Hamilton
Successful urban
neighborhood parks are..
 Integrated into the economic life of the
neighborhood
 Designed and sited to attract diverse visitors
throughout the day.
 Completely visible from the street.
 Oases for “passive” activities such as picnics,
reading, nature appreciation, board games,
socializing, community meetings.
 Monitored effectively to discourage anti-social
activity.
©2010, Sustainable Hamilton

11. Sustainable
Hamilton
Why this matters to a
community as a whole
 Many communities purposefully build out
 They do so at the expense of their older cores
 Older neighborhood economies deteriorate
 Their parks are managed without a vision or plan
 The interaction creates a vicious cycle of decline
 No neighborhood is immune to the conditions of its
adjacent neighborhoods
 Eventually, the economy and quality of life in the
neglected older core will impact the favored new
©2010, Sustainable Hamilton

12. Sustainable
Hamilton
Successful parks
improvement initiatives
 Reflect the needs and desires of local residents
 Are driven from the ground up
 Are supported from the top down
 Depend on commitment more than money
 Rest on whether or not local residents become
Friends of the Park
 Require a willingness to recognize and
repurpose a doomed park
©2010, Sustainable Hamilton