June 2016 - Parks & Recreation - 57

community engagement can help
us determine these barriers. As we
build, improve and maintain public
infrastructure to create safe walking
routes, the following will help us provide communities with a health-promoting environment.
* Health and Wellness: Active design guidelines and complete
streets principles will increase pedestrian safety and will encourage
users to walk or bike to the park
with comfort. The use of signs,
public art or marketing can also
help increase park visibility and
lead users to the park.
* Conservation: Building and improving sidewalks, streets and
park amenities is an opportune
time to build sustainable practices
such as green stormwater management and increased tree canopies
into our streets and parks. Trees
provide pedestrians with shade
and green stormwater management can provide physical separation between cars and pedestrians
to increase safety.
* Social Equity: Crime prevention
through environmental design
(CPTED), increasing eyes on the
park or the route, can help address
social barriers such as crime, violence or gang activity. These strategies include removing or lowering
fences, increasing park entrances
and considering the land use and
siting of buildings around parks.

Do your parks have quality
amenities and programming
that attract local residents?
Finally, even if we provide a park
within a safe and convenient
10-minute walk, this does not ensure that the park is offering what
the local community desires. In
order to attract local residents and
increase the perceived safety of the
park, amenities, community en

gagement and programming should
be enhanced and designed with the
community and the following considerations:
* Health and Wellness: Programs
and amenities should engage participants in physical activity and
should be tailored to varying levels
of fitness. Evaluation of these programs and amenities will ensure
that they are getting users active.
* Conservation: Amenities should
provide visually appealing and
well-maintained natural landscapes that encourage the community to connect with and learn
about nature. Programming should
also support this environmental
education and stewardship of the
community park space.
* Social Equity: Programming and
amenities should be designed with
input from the surrounding community. In areas with many children, high crime or violence and
low-levels of park usage, adult supervision may be needed to help
children and parents feel safe using the park.
As we consider the health, conservation and social equity factors
in Safe Routes to Parks, it is important that we don't tackle this
alone. Partnerships with environmental health departments, planning and metropolitan planning
organizations, water agencies, police, and other city departments

and organizations will help you
achieve mutual goals. By working
together, each of these organizations can pool resources to achieve
the desired outcomes.
In addition, it is important that we
continuously evaluate these spaces,
initiatives and communities so that
we know if we are achieving the desired outcomes. We should be measuring not only physical activity and
obesity levels, but also water quality,
total water captured, increased tree
canopy, effects on urban heat islands,
and crime and violence. Through
partnerships, such as with the local
health department, park and recreation agencies can work with evaluation experts to understand the true
impacts of our work. These impacts
will provide data to validate your
efforts and to increase future investments in similar projects. In an era
of limited resource and aging infrastructure, the Safe Routes to Parks
initiatives can help us to prioritize
our community investments and
maximize our resources.
Detailed references for this article are available at www.parksandrecreation.org/2016/June/
Safe-Routes-to-Parks-Prioritizing-Community-Investments-Maximizing-Resources.
Rachel Banner is NRPA's Program Manager
(rbanner@nrpa.org).

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