Every week, we bring you the latest news in placemaking, landscape architecture and urban planning, the nature-mental health link, and much more. Check back each week for new roundups and items.
Parks: In a Golden Age…Without Two Nickels?
“It has been a good couple of weeks for news about city parks. Many of them have been featured in the press with a focus on the value they bring to cities. Klyde Warren Park, a 5.2-acre deck park built over a recessed freeway in Texas, was awarded the 2014 ULI Urban Open Space Award for bridging the downtown Dallas cultural district with burgeoning mixed-use neighborhoods, “…reshaping the city and catalyzing economic development.” Klyde Warren Park is expected to generate $312.7 million in economic development and $12.7 million in tax revenue for the city of Dallas. At the Philly Parks Future Forum, park experts from five city agencies – Seattle, New York, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and Chicago – gathered to talk about characteristics of good city parks departments. Presented by the City Parks Alliance, the forum was focused on how city parks are one of the greatest assets to the country and how they are progressing nationally.”
The Economic Case for a New Chicago Area Trail
“To the founder of Trails for Illinois, the worst kind of sign is one that reads PATH CLOSED. But in June—on National Trails Day, no less—Steve Buchtel beamed upon seeing just such a sign in Chicago’s south suburbs, ‘because before that there had been no path.’ After almost a decade of planning, the largest trails project in the Midwest was finally becoming a reality. At 26.06 miles long, the Cal-Sag Trail (short for Calumet-Saganashkee, the official name of the manmade channel the trail borders) will eventually connect the Des Plaines River in the southwestern suburb of Lemont, Illinois, to the Burnham Greenway on the Indiana border. Along the way, it links wealthy, largely white bedroom communities, post-industrial areas, and middle class, African American neighborhoods in greater Chicago’s Calumet region.”
2,000 Stormwater-Absorbing Sidewalk Gardens Planned for Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx
“If you live in Brooklyn, the Bronx or Queens, a lush new rainwater garden may soon be popping up on a sidewalk near you. New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection recently announced plans to install 2,000 new bioswales (rainwater-absorbing gardens) over the next year to divert four million gallons of storm water from city sewers. Lovely to look at, these sidewalk gardens will not only spruce up NYC streets, but also protect neighborhoods from storm water overflow. Since Hurricane Sandy, the DEP has been amping up protective measures to help prevent future flooding around the boroughs. Installing curbside gardens may sound like a small and simple step, but will actually help prevent millions of gallons of water from overflowing sewers during storms.”
The City is an Ecosystem, Pipes and All
“Is a tree trying to survive in the city better off than a tree growing in the forest? The obvious answer would seem to be ‘no’: City trees face pollution, poor soil, and a root system disrupted by asphalt and pipes. But when ecologists at Boston University took core samples from trees around Eastern Massachusetts, they found a surprise: Boston street trees grow twice as fast as trees outside the city. Over time, the more development increased around them, the faster they grew. Why? If you’re a tree, city life also offers a number of advantages. You benefit from the extra nitrogen and carbon dioxide in polluted city air; heat trapped by asphalt and concrete warms you in the cold months. There’s less competition for light and space.”
