Urban Policy Planing - Term Paper Example

Abstract The main aim of the paper revolves around the importance of parks and how the urban communities can enhance the beauty and significance of parks by strategizing a plan. This plan includes a thorough urban planning for parks including the recreational activities for children, increasing tourism, creating a natural space for exercises and other healthy routine. Formulating a well strategized urban planning for the development and maintenance of the parks would also create employment opportunities within the local communities. It would also help to earn and save social capital which can be further used in maintaining the parks and the added facilities. The paper provides a thorough understanding of how the implementation of the park would positively affect the communities especially children and how it can become an important source for generating capital at local level. Urban Planning Parks and Recreation: Introduction: For a long time now, parks have been accepted as important contributors to the quality of the urban settings aesthetics and physical quality as well. However as time has moved on, parks have started to be viewed as much playing a much bigger role than just the two. They are no longer viewed in the traditional sense of being recreational and visual assets to communities. They are now viewed by the public and policy makers as valuable contributors to the communities in such ways as creating employment opportunities, enhancing public health, community building and even in youth development. This is not to forget other practical benefits like promoting forestry and conservation as well as improving water quality and protecting groundwater from contamination. Parks are accepted to be great assets in enhancing community building. Value of parks as a consideration for urban planning It is not surprising that parks posses a lot of value even for those that do not use them. One study found that three quarters of those who said they never used parks still favored the existence of the parks. They even reported receiving some benefits from the parks mostly through the parks being used by children (Payne et al l998). Recreation Opportunities Play is a very important for small children and they learn during the same process. It is a very important factor in directing the future of the child’s success. It helps the children develop muscle strength, coordination, reasoning abilities, language and thinking. Play helps to stimulate neural activity and in so doing stimulates the development of neural structures. According to research from the Association for Childhood Education International play is a means by which children practice the skills they will need in their latter lives. Play also teaches children how to best interact and cooperate with fellow children which lays a basis and a foundation for future success in the working world as well as in school. Exercising is good for the child as it has been shown to help increase the brain capacity of the children hence increasing their capacity for learning. Research conducted in the year 1999 by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, came up with the conclusion that voluntary running boosts the growth of new nerve cells. It was also found to increase learning and memory in adults. Most of the new cell growth was found to occur in the hippocampus which is vital in memory formation and this includes spatial learning and consciously recalling facts and incidents. Urban planning and Parks; raising property values It is a relatively common finding that parks add value to the property that lie within close proximity to them. Studies conducted have established a link between the value of properties and their proximity to green spaces that includes neighborhood parks and other urban forested places. A study conducted in three neighborhoods in Colorado established that the residential property values decreased by $4.20 for each foot going away from the green space greenbelt (Correll, Lillydahl, and Singell, 1978). Another example of such findings is the study conducted around Pennypack Park in Philadelphia which confirmed that the value of the properties went up the closer you get to the park (Payne et al., 1998). Urban planning for making park Tourism Benefits Another benefit of having parks is its obvious economic potential as a tourist attraction. Parks are one of the most noticeable landmarks in any city and it can be taken to be a city’s signature attraction as well as a major marketing tool for attracting tourists to your city. Parks can also be used as host venues for conventions and other events. Such events such as food festivals, theatrical events and athletic events or even musical events bring in a lot of revenue in admittance fees as well as the visitors bringing in a lot of economic benefits to the local community like hotel room occupancy, customers for local stores and restaurants. Parks and Youth Development Children of all ages need opportunities to build skills and strengths to lead full and rewarding lives. This means adolescents and even the younger children need a lot of community based activities that help build knowledge, essential skills, and aptitudes that will benefit them and their development. They need to develop intellectually, physically, emotionally and socially for a healthy all round development. Parks can offer these opportunities through programs that are fun but also beneficial for the children and teenagers. A good example of such an initiative is the program offered at the New York Central Park by the North Meadow Recreation Center. It coordinates children from the local community and schools and teaches them basic wellness and anatomy principles. They then also provide fitness activities for the children which are interactive in nature. They have instructors who teach skills such as basketball refereeing and also some other activities requiring team work such as wall climbing that is a team sport requiring support to ensure safety. Urban planning for Parks to promote health in the community Parks are one very inexpensive way to engage in healthy activities and improve a person’s health as well as cultivating and promoting healthy habits. According to a study conducted in Cleveland, there are a lot of positives from parks in promoting health. It found that parks promote health for Americans especially of age 50 and above (Payne et al., 1998). This park users in this bracket mostly consisted of joggers, bikers and walkers and they were found to be significantly healthier than those that did not use parks. They even reported that on top of having a general feeling of good health and renewal after using the park, they actually had fewer visits to the doctor. A study conducted in a Pennsylvania hospital indicates that patients tend to recover faster when exposed to greenery and nature. One group of patients was put in rooms overlooking a stand of trees while others were put in rooms facing a brown brick wall. The review of the patients after a ten year observation showed that the patients facing the green trees recovered quicker and required far fewer pain killers. They also had less negative comments from the nurse’s notes. This was in comparison to the patients in the rooms facing the brick wall. Plants have a positive impact on mental well being of humans and studies conducted tend to support this view. Howard Frumkin says in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine that from studies he has conducted, “Horticultural therapy which has grown as a type of mental health management, is based mainly on the noted therapeutic effect of gardening. In community-based programs today, it has become a commonly used tool while also becoming indispensable to special education, geriatrics programs and prisons. Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson, in 1984 hypothesized the existence of biophilia, “the innately emotional affiliation of human beings to other living organisms” In effect laying an important theoretical foundation for this field of thought. This idea has over time been expanded by others. They have expanded it to include an affinity for nature which goes further beyond to include more than just living things, which allows us to include wind, streams and even ocean waves. This affinity it has been hypothesized may actually stem from our evolutionary roots. Frumkin says “For the great majority of human existence, human biology has been embedded in the natural environment. He further states that those who had the capability to smell the water, recognize the safe havens, find the plants and follow the animals must then have enjoyed special survival advantages necessary for survival. Frequency of Exercise and parks From studies conducted, it has been proven that when people are able to access the parks more, then they also have a tendency to exercise more. According to a study by the CDC, there was a 25.6% increase in the percentage of people exercising on three or more days per week after creation of access to places for doing physical exercise. This exercising regimen led to an increase in aerobic capacity which in turn led to a reduction in body fat. This ultimately led to weight loss and improvements associated with it. The studies conducted by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine also found that there was an increase in flexibility and perceived energy. This confirms the fear that when people lead sedentary lifestyles with nowhere to walk to, they gain weight and it may lead to obesity. So obesity is bound to increase in neighborhoods that are not conducive for walking. In neighborhoods that people walk a lot, the obesity rates tend to drop. From a comprehensive report carried out in 1996 by the U.S. Surgeon General, it was found that those people who engaged in some form of regular physical activity, tended to benefit from a reduced risk of premature death. They also tended to have a reduced risk of non-insulin-dependent diabetes, coronary heart disease, and hypertension and colon cancer. They also got to improve their maintenance of muscle strength, joint structure, and joint function. Weight loss and the distribution of body fat in a favorable manner, improved physical functioning in people suffering from poor health and healthier cardiovascular, respiratory, and endocrine systems were all associated with the regular exercising by those that started exercising due to the introduction or refurbishment of a park nearby. It was also found that Americans could substantially improve their health and quality of life just by including some physical activity in their daily lives. The health benefits were also found to be proportional to the amount of activity. This is to say that, every increase in activity added some benefit in turn. It is a well known that there are so many benefits of physical activity, but still only 25 percent of American adults engage in the recommended levels of physical activity according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). At the same time about 29 percent engage in no leisure time or any physical activity. Unfortunately, this problem has extended to children of whom only about 27 percent of the students in grades 9 to grade 12 engage in either moderate physical activity or intensive physical activity. This sedentary lifestyle has produced according to the CDC among U.S. adults between 20 and 74 years old, 27 percent who were obese in 1999. This figure is almost double the 15 percent obesity rate in 1980. The percentage of children and adolescents in the same overweight category has also increased by more than double since the early 1970s. It is very concerning that now about 13 percent of children and adolescents are considered to be seriously overweight. The downside of being obese is that they suffer an increased risk of high blood cholesterol, non-insulin-dependent diabetes, coronary heart disease high blood pressure, hypertension, congestive heart failure, stroke, gallstones, and osteoarthritis. They also run an increased risk of some types of cancer such as colon, prostate, endometrial, breast and prostate cancers. To add on to this, they also suffer from complications such as bladder control problems, pregnancy and poor female reproductive health issues such as menstrual irregularities, irregular ovulation and infertility. This is on top of running the greater risk of psychological problems which may include low self-esteem, depression, distorted body image and eating disorders. The studies have shown that having a park nearby increases the chances of the people in the community using it to exercise which will promote better health in the long and short terms for the whole community. Urban planning using Parks to create employment Parks offer a lot of employment opportunities for the youth and act as providers of the first jobs for a lot of young people. Summer Camps are usually held in parks and camp counselors and lifeguards are usually jobs reserved for the youth. This jobs act as an introduction into the grownups world of work and responsibility. This is however not the only way that parks provide employment opportunities for the community residents. Parks offer long term jobs for residents as well which are valuable in providing avenues for gaining experience and being more competitive in the job market. Some parks have programs that help to prepare youth for the work place after they leave high school. A good example is the Garfield Park Alliance that offers a two year program during which time; the interns get training that is geared towards leadership development, social skills- building and job readiness. The job itself means the interns work as docents in the park conservatory where they explain the exhibits to visitors. They have also had help from the authorities in employing some youth apprentices for their art projects like the tile mosaic erected at the adjacent rail station. This shows the value of parks in inculcating a positive working culture among the youth in the community as well as providing employment for many other community members who need the jobs. Parks and the environment as a way for urban planning savings Urban parks and other green areas serve as conservation points in terms of encouraging the community to reduce on pollution for a healthier community. The parks are themselves green zones whereby trees are planted and maintained which is a form of forestation. This green spaces help to clean the air as the trees produce the oxygen that is so refreshing in the urban centers settings. Efforts by the park managements ensure that no pollution takes place within the parks and as such you are always assured of a pollution free environment in the park which enhances the health of the community members. According to data from the U.S. Forest Service, over a 50-year lifetime, one tree is capable of generating $31,250 worth of oxygen and it will have provided $62,000 worth of precious air pollution control. The same tree will have recycled $37,500 worth of water, and controlled $31,250 worth of soil erosion during the same duration. In New York City, trees helped removed an estimated 1,821 metric tons of air pollution in 1994 alone. It has been calculated that within an area populated by 100 percent tree cover, trees can help remove from the air in excess of as much as 15 percent ozone, 13-19 percent particulate matter, 14 percent of the sulfur dioxide, 8 percent nitrogen dioxide, and 0.05 percent carbon monoxide. These are such areas as contiguous forest stands that are common within urban parks. Tree cover and the tree roots also act as natural filters for water pollution. The tree leaves and trunk plus the roots and the soil trapped beneath them acts as a natural filter removing polluted particulate matter that is present in the water before the water reaches the storm drain sewers. Trees are also responsible for the absorption of byproducts from human activities like nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous which are big contaminants of rivers, lakes and streams. Trees function as natural air conditioners which helps to keep cities cooler counteracting the effects of glass and concrete that can serve to keep the cities very hot. Evaporation from just one sizeable tree produces the cooling effect of ten air conditioners running for the whole day and night. Groundwater is easily polluted in urban settings due to the high and concentrated populations of people and the activities they engage in which lead to pollution of the environment and as a consequence ground water. Parks on the other hand are the most pollution free parts of most cities. This means any ground water within the parks boundaries is relatively pollution free as a result. This is also enhanced by the open green spaces and trees which help in the retention of water as well. Urban planning for use of Parks for Controlling Storm water Runoff Storm water needs to be effectively controlled to avoid costly damages. The normal way of doing these in most cities is by the use of concrete storm drains and sewers. Now trees provide another inexpensive and more effective means of controlling this run off water. Cities are covered by surfaces that are not absorbent and as such the water has nowhere to go in essence creating the runoff water. Trees on the other hand intercept the rainfall, while the unpaved surfaces absorb the water and the two combine to slow down the rate at which the water reaches storm water drainage facilities. According to the American Forests Urban Resource Center, cities can create smaller and less expensive storm water management facilities and systems by introducing the use of trees into the city’s infrastructure. According to a survey by a conservation organization known as American Forests, the total tree cover in the nations metropolitan areas helps take down the need for building more storm drain infrastructure hence saving the nation the staggering figure of $400 billion despite natural tree cover declining by more than 30% in most cities over the last few decades. Social Capital For the promotion of social cohesion in the urban setting, parks are a magnet for socially cohesive activity and contribute greatly not just to youth development but also to strengthening of ties between the residents of the community just by acting as a point for bringing them together. It brings together people who may ordinarily not meet as they are divided by race or by class helping them to work together on common projects within the community. These ties are what are labeled as social capital and they are subtle but very important assets to a community. These ties provide an important avenue for information, values and social expectations to flow. They at the same time help to empower people so that they can tackle the problems facing the community together. These same forums help the community to effectively lobby and advocate for issues and conduct actions effectively. Research has determined that neighbor hoods that have effective collective efficacy are able to reduce crime and disorderly conduct. This has been found to be true even in very poor neighborhood communities (Sampson, Raudenbush, and Earls, 1997). Parks have also been found to encourage people living in low income neighborhoods to leave their apartments and socialize with each other in the process forming connections that are lasting (Coley, Kuo, and Sullivan, 1997; Kuo, Coley, and Brunson, 1998). These ties after developing contribute to making of the whole place much more livable and also contribute greatly to the well being and security of the community as a whole (Kweon, Sullivan, and Wiley, 1998). Reducing Crime is another social advantage of having parks. There has been a strong link between the reduction of crime and juvenile delinquency and the access to parks and their recreational facilities. The parks help to keep the at risk youth busy and away from the streets which gives them a safe environment to grow and interact with peers eliminating idle time which could otherwise be ill used. In urban planning, both the technical and political processes combine to ensure that the end result is the best plan for the community they are planning for. In this respect, design of the urban transport in relation to the parks and other complementary factors for an effective manner to run the park have to be given priority. The architecture, accessibility and general design are all part of ensuring the final park design will be for the best of the community and as such the community has to be consulted as well. This ensures an all inclusive process that gives the final park a chance to fulfill all its positive contributions to the society. A well planed park will always be easily accessible and safe for every one to use as well as being a big part of providing a healthier and more inclusive community. The parks merits have been enumerated above and the urban planners in the city departments responsible in conjunction with the management of the parks are then only left with planning and implementing plans that will either create new parks and green spaces or revamp and improve the already existing ones. The social, economic and health implications associated with parks cannot be ignored and the planners must plan for the parks within their vicinity. Or they must ensure that their communities have access to parks and other green spaces. It is of paramount importance to planners to consider the financial implications of having parks in their vicinity since it has been shown that it saves millions which would otherwise be needed in making concrete drainage infrastructure. References American Forests. (1997). The State of the Urban Forest: Assessing Tree Cover and Developing goals. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2001) Defining Overweight and Obesity. http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/defining.htm. Frumkin, Howard. (2001). Beyond Toxicity: Human Health and the Natural Environment. American Journal of Preventive Medicine20, no. 3 Kuo, Frances E., William C. Sullivan, Rebekah Levine Coley, and Liesette Brunson. (1998). Fertile Ground for Community: Inner-City Neighborhood Common Spaces. American Journal of Community Psychology 26, no. 6 ebs.aces.uiuc.edu/herl/docs/KuoSulColeyBrunson.pdf. Kuo, Frances E., Rebekah Levine Coley, and Liesette Brunson. (1998). Fertile Ground for Community: Inner-City Neighborhood Common Spaces. American Journal of Community Psychology 26(6): 823–51. Correll, Mark R., Jane H. Lillydahl, and Larry D. Singell. (1978). The Effect of Greenbelts on Residential Property Values: Some Findings on the Political Economy of Open Space. Land Economics. Payne, Laura, Beth Orsega-Smith, Geoffrey Godbey, and Mark Roy. (1998). Local Parks and the Health of Older Adults: Results of an Exploratory Study. Parks & Recreation 33(10): 64. Kweon, Byoung-Suk, William C. Sullivan, and Angel R. Wiley. (1998). Green Common Spaces and the Social Integration of Inner-City Older Adults. Environment and Behavior 30(6): 832–58. Sampson, Robert J., Stephen W. Raudenbush, and Felton Earls.(1997). Neighborhoods and Violent Crime: A Multilevel Study of Collective Efficacy. Science 277:918–24. Read More