Preparing for Class in the New Year: The Value of City Parks
By Marvin Miller, AIB President
As noted in the President’s message of another organization to which I belong, at the New Year, one often takes the opportunity both to look back and to look ahead. This might be deemed especially important this year, since we are embarking on a new decade. Yet, except for historical purposes and the possibility of learning the lessons from that history, looking back usually is not as productive as looking forward. Of course, good planning tries to take those lessons from history to help weigh options and forecast likely outcomes for the various paths which might be selected for the future.
One of my first assignments in the New Year is to prepare to speak to a class titled “Plants, Gardening and You.” Offered by the University of Florida’s Environmental Horticulture Department, this class is aimed for non-horticulture majors. In the past, I have been asked to speak to college classes on topics usually related to marketing, market research, and/or trends in the horticulture industry. This will be the first time I address a college class on a topic that probably relates more to America in Bloom than anything else in my classroom repertoire.
So, I soon will be on stage in front of 200 students who are taking this course as an elective because they need the general education credit and/or because they think they like plants. Since they are mostly from outside the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, I am assuming most have only been casually connected to plants or gardening. If I’m lucky, it may be an active hobby for some, but industry demographics would suggest this is a hobby usually developed later in life than the age of the typical college student.
This will be only the second class session in the new semester. My guess is I will be transmitting some of the first information many of these students will hear about plants or gardening. For this course and for this class, I think it will be prudent for me to talk mostly about the “You” in the course title.
I asked one of the young people with whom I work what he thought was on the minds of the typical college student today. Bill suggested thoughts relating to the environment and sustainability would be important. He noted community and how one might be able to contribute to or even give back to the community would be salient messages. Bill was looking forward. For students and other young people who have so much more of their lives yet to live, looking forward is important! So, again, I think it will be important to discuss people issues to get any points across.
As I contemplate this assignment, I am convinced my task will be easy. I can talk about many of society’s ills – violence, eating disorders, productivity declines, pollution, and crime, and I will be able to tell these students proudly that I work in a field that helps to fight these troubles. I can talk about the challenges of community – finding common ground, focus, and purpose, and I can tell them about America in Bloom, a program that helps turn populations into real communities, developing a corps of volunteers working for the common good of all citizens. And I can ask them about their future – vocational or avocational directions, and I can steer them to our beautiful world of plants and gardening and all that plants can offer to make their lives and our world a better place.
Bolstering some of these points are two related studies that discuss the value of city parks. The first (June 2008) was commissioned by the Philadelphia Parks Alliance and conducted by The Trust for Public Land’s Center for City Park Excellence. Titled “How Much Value Does the City of Philadelphia Receive from its Park and Recreation System?”, this groundbreaking study involved economists and other scientists from several universities, government agencies, and other organizations. The conclusion: the returns from Philadelphia’s parks to the city and its citizens yield “about 100 times the amount that the city spends on parks each year.”
The report details the returns. Cited were factors affecting the city government and factors affecting citizens. For example, the city gained tax receipts from increased property values (0.95% of the imputed returns) and city tax receipts from increased tourism (0.27%). The city saved costs for stormwater management (0.31%), air pollution mitigation (0.08%), and the value of community cohesion (defined as the value gained by promoting relationship building and its resulting social capital, 0.45%). Citizens saved money for direct use (56.23%) and health (due to increased physical activity and reduced medical costs, 3.63%), and increased their collective wealth from increased property values due to park proximity (35.99%) and profit from tourism (2.10%). In total, over $1.9 billion was conservatively estimated as the annual value of the Philadelphia Park and Recreation System.
The second study (March 2009), also conducted by The Trust for Public Land’s Center for City Park Excellence, extended the first study to include data from several other cities’ park systems. “Measuring the Economic Value of a City Park System” noted that not every aspect of a city park system can be quantified nor its returns evaluated; neither the mental health value of a walk in the woods nor the value of carbon sequestration were offered as examples.
Reading through these reports, many opportunities for follow-up research were noted. Yet, these reports provide a first attempt at recognizing the financial returns achievable from relatively modest investments in public park space. As Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter concluded in the first study when asking the citizens to invest even more in their park system, “Philadelphia already has one of the best and biggest park systems in the nation…This report puts the reasons why in dollars and cents.”
Granted, parks are only part of the urban landscape, but many of the same benefits can accrue to the city and its citizens from a planting of street trees, the beauty of flowering hanging baskets adorning lampposts, well-maintained shrubs and turf on the lawns of municipal buildings, or the flower beds in people’s front yards. With the New Year and the planning for our ninth AIB contest, we have an exciting opportunity to testify to the returns of urban beautification. And what an exciting opportunity I have to carry this message to a college campus as we march into this new decade.
Have a Happy New Year!
As noted in the President’s message of another organization to which I belong, at the New Year, one often takes the opportunity both to look back and to look ahead. This might be deemed especially important this year, since we are embarking on a new decade. Yet, except for historical purposes and the possibility of learning the lessons from that history, looking back usually is not as productive as looking forward. Of course, good planning tries to take those lessons from history to help weigh options and forecast likely outcomes for the various paths which might be selected for the future.
One of my first assignments in the New Year is to prepare to speak to a class titled “Plants, Gardening and You.” Offered by the University of Florida’s Environmental Horticulture Department, this class is aimed for non-horticulture majors. In the past, I have been asked to speak to college classes on topics usually related to marketing, market research, and/or trends in the horticulture industry. This will be the first time I address a college class on a topic that probably relates more to America in Bloom than anything else in my classroom repertoire.
So, I soon will be on stage in front of 200 students who are taking this course as an elective because they need the general education credit and/or because they think they like plants. Since they are mostly from outside the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, I am assuming most have only been casually connected to plants or gardening. If I’m lucky, it may be an active hobby for some, but industry demographics would suggest this is a hobby usually developed later in life than the age of the typical college student.
This will be only the second class session in the new semester. My guess is I will be transmitting some of the first information many of these students will hear about plants or gardening. For this course and for this class, I think it will be prudent for me to talk mostly about the “You” in the course title.
I asked one of the young people with whom I work what he thought was on the minds of the typical college student today. Bill suggested thoughts relating to the environment and sustainability would be important. He noted community and how one might be able to contribute to or even give back to the community would be salient messages. Bill was looking forward. For students and other young people who have so much more of their lives yet to live, looking forward is important! So, again, I think it will be important to discuss people issues to get any points across.
As I contemplate this assignment, I am convinced my task will be easy. I can talk about many of society’s ills – violence, eating disorders, productivity declines, pollution, and crime, and I will be able to tell these students proudly that I work in a field that helps to fight these troubles. I can talk about the challenges of community – finding common ground, focus, and purpose, and I can tell them about America in Bloom, a program that helps turn populations into real communities, developing a corps of volunteers working for the common good of all citizens. And I can ask them about their future – vocational or avocational directions, and I can steer them to our beautiful world of plants and gardening and all that plants can offer to make their lives and our world a better place.
Bolstering some of these points are two related studies that discuss the value of city parks. The first (June 2008) was commissioned by the Philadelphia Parks Alliance and conducted by The Trust for Public Land’s Center for City Park Excellence. Titled “How Much Value Does the City of Philadelphia Receive from its Park and Recreation System?”, this groundbreaking study involved economists and other scientists from several universities, government agencies, and other organizations. The conclusion: the returns from Philadelphia’s parks to the city and its citizens yield “about 100 times the amount that the city spends on parks each year.”
The report details the returns. Cited were factors affecting the city government and factors affecting citizens. For example, the city gained tax receipts from increased property values (0.95% of the imputed returns) and city tax receipts from increased tourism (0.27%). The city saved costs for stormwater management (0.31%), air pollution mitigation (0.08%), and the value of community cohesion (defined as the value gained by promoting relationship building and its resulting social capital, 0.45%). Citizens saved money for direct use (56.23%) and health (due to increased physical activity and reduced medical costs, 3.63%), and increased their collective wealth from increased property values due to park proximity (35.99%) and profit from tourism (2.10%). In total, over $1.9 billion was conservatively estimated as the annual value of the Philadelphia Park and Recreation System.
The second study (March 2009), also conducted by The Trust for Public Land’s Center for City Park Excellence, extended the first study to include data from several other cities’ park systems. “Measuring the Economic Value of a City Park System” noted that not every aspect of a city park system can be quantified nor its returns evaluated; neither the mental health value of a walk in the woods nor the value of carbon sequestration were offered as examples.
Reading through these reports, many opportunities for follow-up research were noted. Yet, these reports provide a first attempt at recognizing the financial returns achievable from relatively modest investments in public park space. As Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter concluded in the first study when asking the citizens to invest even more in their park system, “Philadelphia already has one of the best and biggest park systems in the nation…This report puts the reasons why in dollars and cents.”
Granted, parks are only part of the urban landscape, but many of the same benefits can accrue to the city and its citizens from a planting of street trees, the beauty of flowering hanging baskets adorning lampposts, well-maintained shrubs and turf on the lawns of municipal buildings, or the flower beds in people’s front yards. With the New Year and the planning for our ninth AIB contest, we have an exciting opportunity to testify to the returns of urban beautification. And what an exciting opportunity I have to carry this message to a college campus as we march into this new decade.
Have a Happy New Year!