Environment

Here's How Cities Can Get the Most out of Their Parks

Neighborhood green spaces aren’t always living up to their full potential.
A new report offers suggestions for maximizing use of urban parks.Lucas Jackson/Reuters

A neighborhood park can be a powerful tool to help nearby residents lead healthier lives. According to one study, every dollar spent on creating and maintaining park trails saves nearly $3 in healthcare expenses. And America is chock full of neighborhood parks: Across the country, there are over 9,000 local parks and recreation departments and more than 100,000 public park facilities.

Parks seem like an ideal place for Americans to meet the national recommendations for physical activity (an hour a day for youth and a 150 minutes a week for adults). But because neighborhood parks are rarely designed with urban health in mind, these spaces—which the study defines as anywhere from two to 20 acres—often don’t fulfill their potential as pieces of public health infrastructure. A new study by researchers from the RAND Corporation, City Parks Alliance, and The Trust for Public Land is offering some solutions.