August 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 42

THE NEW NORMAL

Black Lives Matter movement. As
change piles upon change, there is
one outcome that is increasingly
apparent: parks and recreation will
change forever.
Because of the pandemic, public
parks have become more important
to people and more essential to our
health and well-being than perhaps
at any time before this pernicious
disease threatened our health and
freedoms. Mike Kelly, general superintendent of the Chicago Park

District and NRPA board member,
says, " This pandemic hits us at every level - financial, health, economic, even emotional. One thing
it has shown us is how important
parks are to every walk of life. "
Phil Ginsburg, director of San
Francisco Parks and Recreation,
agrees: " Parks are not just 'nice to
have,' they are 'must have.' They
are critical infrastructure and vital
to the public. "
Despite widespread disruptions
to our society, the pandemic is
demonstrating that communityoriented public systems that are
grounded in the needs of local communities and neighborhoods, such
as public parks and recreation, will
be strengthened rather than fractured by the pandemic. Parks and
recreation has already proven to be
highly resilient and attuned to serving public needs. Responding to
the pandemic, park and recreation
systems have ramped up daycare
for the children of first responders,
provided shelter for people experiencing homelessness, continued
meal programs for children and offered health services at community
centers. The pandemic is showing
how the mission of parks and recreation is evolving to include serving
as a provider of social and health
services in the effort to rebuild and
reconnect communities.
So, what has changed and why,
and what will inevitably change in
the future?

The Shape of Parks
Parks and recreation facilities will
look different than they do today.
Already, park planners are looking
at the redesign of common areas
and public gathering spots with
an eye to improving the flow of
pedestrian traffic and maintaining
physical distancing. For indoor fa40

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cilities, the reconfiguration of existing spaces may not be all that expensive, but the retrofits of HVAC
and air handling systems to reduce
coronavirus loads will be expensive
and complicated.
Interestingly, COVID-19 is causing expansions of the public realm
in ways that few would have predicted. Urban public space that was
once heavily tilted toward providing vehicular access is rapidly transitioning to accommodate human
powered travel, outdoor dining
and public recreation space, boldly claiming territory for outdoor
activities and new kinds of urban
parks.
In the future, the public will be
giving up a lot of privacy to use indoor recreation facilities and participate in programs. There will likely
be temperature testing at entrances,
greater visual surveillance and possibly even facial recognition scans.
At a minimum, the public will need
to provide personal information to
participate and many may opt in to
using phone apps to give personal location data to inform health
departments for potential contact
tracing. Certainly, there will be less
human touch, figuratively and literally with contactless payments and
no-touch transactions.

The Shape of Recreation
During and after the shelter-inplace orders due to COVID-19,
visitation at state and local parks
exploded. The crush of public use
has required agencies to be as flexible and adaptable as possible. Early
in the pandemic, local parks and
trails were inundated with visitors
who just wanted to get out daily for physical activity. Now that
some jurisdictions are well into
phased reopening plans, visitation
has been greatest at recreational
August 2020 - Parks & Recreation

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