Recommendations from the National Study of Neighborhood Parks
Neighborhood parks and playgrounds first emerged in the early 20th century as a solution to the social challenges of rapid population and industrialization then taking over American urban centers. Before that, parks were large, open spaces, bucolic settings designed to bring people together in nature as a pause from the concrete and steel then consuming the landscape, and as an expression of our democracy.
By the mid-20th century, parks had transitioned to include more indoor facilities for programmed, active recreation for all ages. Today, they have become important components in urban networks that include commercial, residential and transportation functions, as well as infrastructure that helps to deal with stormwater runoff and other urban environmental degradation. As such, America’s city parks have been utilitarian by their nature. With each century, urban parks and recreation have evolved to respond to the pressing needs of the day.
Today, research shows that Americans are suffering from a health crisis and a lack of physical activity is partly to blame. It starts early: 1 in 3 American children is either overweight or obese. By the time they reach adulthood, nearly half of all Americans have chronic health conditions — heart disease, diabetes and obesity chief among them.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that adults engage in 150 minutes of moderate physical activity weekly — about 30 minutes per day, five times per week and children 60 minutes per day, which is especially important to strengthen muscles and bones, setting a foundation for lifelong health. But 80 percent of us aren’t meeting these goals.
Part of the solution is to get moving, and a great place to do it is nearby for most Americans — in the neighborhood park. Much of the U.S. population lives within a half mile of a park offering outdoor recreation and a back-to-nature mental break. But, most neighborhood parks aren’t designed or programmed to successfully meet today’s demographic and lifestyle needs and are therefore underutilized.
It is time to rethink neighborhood parks from top to bottom — how they’re designed, what programming is offered and even how America’s great untapped recreational resource is branded and marketed. It won’t be easy, and we don’t claim to have a cure-all, but together we have identified some ways that parks can get us to a healthier future.
With creativity, new and stronger partnerships, and more than a bit of innovation, we can make our local parks places where all Americans — regardless of age, gender or physical ability — can get the physical activity they need.
There’s an easy-to-follow roadmap to get us there. City Parks Alliance recently published Active Parks, Healthy Cities: Recommendations from the National Study of Neighborhood Parks, which presents several low-cost examples of how some cities are succeeding in building better close-to-home parks.
The National Study of Neighborhood Parks was a two-year examination of park use and design at 174 neighborhood parks in 25 cities across the country. City Parks Alliance and the RAND Corporation led the research with help from The Trust for Public Land and funding from the National Institute of Health’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. For this study, neighborhood parks were defined as being between 2 and 20 acres and intended to serve residents living within a 1-mile radius of the parks. Researchers documented the age, gender and relative level of physical activity of park users, and they matched those factors against park characteristics, amenities and conditions. More importantly, the research team also collected the perceptions of those parks by those who used them.
All that data was then distilled into key recommendations for turning America’s great neighborhood parks into part of the solution to America’s ongoing health crisis. The recommendations fall in four major categories: programming, design, outreach and measurement. And Active Parks, Healthy Cities includes multiple case studies for each from cities large and small and diverse geographies from desert to waterfront. It is a trove of ideas and options for building better neighborhood parks.
Programming
Nothing increases park use and physical activity as much as programming — providing supervised activities to help people make active use of available space. Data show that with each supervised activity added to the program offering, there is a 48 percent increase in park use and a 37 percent increase in physical activity. In particular, two largely underrepresented groups — seniors and teen girls — benefit the most from programming targeted at their needs and interests.
For instance, people age 60-plus make up 18 percent of urban populations, but only 4 percent of park users. Given that we know physical activity has immediate and lasting benefits for seniors, this is a huge area of opportunity to make America healthier. Most critically, we need more and better places where people can safely walk but adding enhanced senior-targeted programming can bring structure, encouragement, companionship and enjoyment to this important demographic.
Meanwhile, for young females who are outnumbered by boys at parks by almost 2 to 1, the solution is often team sports that are both social and fun. Right now, only 8 in 100 girls play sports in neighborhood parks. By their teens, just 4 percent of teen girls play team sports. In Los Angeles, an inspiring program, called Girls Play L.A., motivates girls in underserved communities to get into sports. Girls Play L.A. is an outgrowth of the Gender Equity Program at the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks, and the goal is to lift female participation in youth sports to 50 percent. Participation in the program costs only $10. In 2018, there were 88 Girls Play L.A. sites with 27,000 participants.
While team sports are great for girls, Los Angeles has not looked past individual sports either. Traveling Rings, dangling metal loops, were originally installed at the famous Muscle Beach in Santa Monica in the 1960s. They are particularly good at building core strength. The city has installed these rings, in large and small sizes, to draw teens and young adults. No appointment necessary, and there are no leagues to join or schedules to coordinate. The concept is so popular that you can now find traveling rings in cities like San Antonio, Virginia Beach, Providence and New York City.
Across the country, in Providence, Rhode Island, the city’s “Eat, Play, Learn” summer meal program is a multi-department attack on health and hunger. It’s also an example of how diverse partnerships are getting the job done. “Eat, Play, Learn” is a collaboration of Providence’s Healthy Communities Office, its parks and recreation department, public school district and Department of Art, Culture + Tourism. The program serves lunches at 33 neighborhood parks and runs the PlayCorps Program in five parks “to get kids into playgrounds, build[ing] things, [making] art, [having] unstructured play time to make their own fun, do[ing] science experiments, garden[ing], and eat[ing] meals.”
Outreach
People are less likely to use parks if they don’t know what’s happening in them, so outreach is key. In that regard, old-school marketing still has a big place. Banners, posters and signs increase park awareness and use and physical activity. The study found that park departments deploying these kinds of publicity experienced a 62 percent increase in users and a 63 percent increase in physical activity.
New-school marketing is making an impact as well. Social media has become a cornerstone of park marketing efforts, but the city of Westminster, Colorado, took things a step beyond in finding a fun, novel way to use the tool to benefit park participation. The Westminster Parks Department launched a monster egg hunt via Facebook, asking residents to “report unusual sightings” at local parks, and enticed people to the park to find them. The department has seen a significant increase in park visitors and trail use ever since. The clever combination of real and virtual approaches received significant social media engagement and one video had more than 30,000 views at last count.
Design
A large component of the transformation of parks from open spaces to active places is in the physical design of the landscape. One example the report highlights is that parks with walking loops have 80 percent more users, twice the number of senior users, and almost twice the level of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity as parks without loops. And, regarding playgrounds, the report says more is better. For every element added to a given playground, use (and activity level) increased by half.
Even the restrooms need a refresh. In Portland, Oregon, the city commissioner designed a better public toilet with input from police, fire and maintenance personnel. It’s a wheelchair-accessible, well-ventilated and easy-to-clean metal facility called the “Portland Loo.” Currently, Portland boasts 17 of these facilities, and there are 50 others across the United States and Canada.
Measurement
As the saying goes, “if you don’t measure, you can’t manage.” This maxim is as true for parks as any other urban institution. In addition to counting permits and fees, park departments have begun to actively measure use. It’s not always cheap or easy, but this data greatly increases an agency’s ability to highlight opportunities and to target investments and activities to serve all residents. Most of all, however, measurement helps to build the case with citizens and public officials about the deep value parks provide in the community. Parks that are well-used likely have vocal constituencies to support them, and park agencies that accurately measure park use are better positioned to justify public spending to maintain and enhance neighborhood parks.
Parks can help save us from an unfit future, but not if we don’t enhance and care for them with new programs, amenities, outreach and data. To meet 21st century health, infrastructure and social needs, we need a 21st century exploration of parks for all they can offer as solutions to those challenges. We must rethink everything, from infrastructure to programming to partnerships, and that’s where park professionals can help.
Catherine Nagel is the Executive Director of City Parks Alliance.