In Search of the Best Deal: Got Parks?
We spend a lot of our time looking for the best “deal“ to enhance our lives. You know what I’m talking about—that one “thing” with the most value for the buck—a new vehicle, the food we eat, health insurance, gym membership, our children’s education, the family home. As individuals we constantly define and prioritize the “value” of the things we need to make ends meet and the things we want/need to enhance our lives.
On a community level, elected officials and city leadership are tasked with finding the best “deals” for an entire community. As they determine how to spend limited taxpayer monies they must weigh their answers to questions like these: What are the “must-have” necessities? What are simply amenities? What helps economic development? What brings in tourist dollars? What enhances the health, safety, and lives of everyone living in the community? What reaps the biggest dividends? It is certainly a daunting task to have to address the needs of people across diverse demographics, a task made even more difficult when you must prioritize them—assign a value—for funding within slim margins.
As community members, how would we answer those questions? What should we be investing in as a community that provides the biggest benefits for the most people? What gives all of us the biggest bang for our buck—not just now or in the next year—but 50 years in the future? The answers we come up with will help us advocate for the heart and soul of our community and help inform our elected officials what their constituents value most.
Our answer? We believe the best value Redding can give its citizens are our parks and trail system! This answer isn’t just because we are the Redding Parks and Trails Foundation. Communities across the country are realizing that investing in core park infrastructure brings them a huge return on their investment. These benefits cut across diverse demographics and socio-economic levels. Current research demonstrates that investing in parks helps create healthy, resilient, economically viable communities—not just in the short term, but for the long haul.
A cyclist rides on the Sacramento River Trail in Redding, Calif.
Ironically, the value of a park to a community is not a new idea! Fredrick Law Olmstead—the designer of New York’s Central Park and San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park—and other 19th century visionaries believed and preached that parks were not just amenities but necessities, providing recreation, inspiration, and essential respite from city ills. They could see that America was on the cusp of great change – moving from our beginnings as a rural, agricultural nation to one that was 85% urban centered. This meant that people would no longer reap the benefits of being surrounded by nature. People like Olmstead believed that large parks in cities could bring these benefits back to the people who lived in these new urban areas and should be available to all residents. Their efforts in creating large parks in cities across America was rooted in their belief and understanding that they were shaping the quality of life for America’s citizens for generations to come.
However, as populations shifted to the suburbs after World War II, this belief that parks offered significant value to communities faded. It was replaced with the idea that parks were simply nice features that had nothing to do with the viability of a community, an idea that resulted in many cities losing the resources to create new parks or revitalize existing ones. In many places today, parks continue to remain a low priority to fund with taxpayer dollars.
Recent studies are helping to change that mindset and communities and people are benefiting! This research demonstrates that parks bring social, environmental, economic, and health benefits that directly influence the health and vitality of a city:
Better Health Outcomes: Parks and open spaces improve overall physical and psychological health for residents of all ages
Stronger Community Bonds: Parks provide a common play space that allows for the development of social interactions and warmer relationships across diverse demographics.
Increased Tourism: Parks attract tourists, filling hotel rooms and bringing customers to local stores and restaurants.
Effective Marketing tool: As community signature pieces, parks offer a marketing tool for cities to attract businesses and conventions leading to economic development.
Economic Development Driver: Parks enhance property values, increase municipal revenue, bring in homebuyers and workers, and attract retirees
Enhanced Ecosystem Vitality: Green space in urban areas provides substantial ecosystem services. The U.S. Forest Service calculated that over a 50-year lifetime, one tree generates $31,250 worth of oxygen, provides $62,000 worth of air pollution control, recycles $37,500 worth of water, and controls $31,250 worth of soil erosion.
Reduced Stormwater Management Costs: Incorporating trees and parks into a city’s infrastructure can decrease the necessary size of the city’s stormwater management system because a park’s trees store water, reducing the rate at which it flows into a city’s stormwater treatment facilities.
We are lucky to live in Redding, a community that clearly values parks! The City of Redding supports 41 parks, over 200 miles of trails, and numerous open spaces, resulting in a higher quality of life for all our residents. This hasn’t just been a fluke. It has taken vision, hard work, and a deep understanding that parks, open spaces, and trails are a necessity—a core infrastructure investment—that is vital to building healthy, resilient, growing communities, places any of us would want to call “home”!
Cyclists ride on the Sacramento River Trail in Redding, Calif.
Got PARKS?
Congratulations! You’ve found the best deal of all!
