May 2012 - Parks & Recreation - 22

Who, What, Where & how Around the Parks

Interview

Richard Florida
Parks, Community Attachment, and the Knowledge Economy
By Maureen Hannan

P

eople care for and protect the places they love.
And, just as importantly,
they tend to stay in and invite others to those places. Richard Florida, a professor at the
University of Toronto's Rotman School of
Management, is a long-time observer of
public spaces whose work focuses on the
common factors and the socioeconomic
impact of this " community attachment. "
In our shift from an industrial- to a knowledge-based economy, abundant, walkable, " serendipitous " public spaces have
come to represent the new gold standard
of community attractiveness, Florida says.
" A park is not a frivolity. "
In fact, local park systems provide (or
have the potential to provide) the quality-of-life assets Americans claim to value
most highly. He recaps the findings of the
Knight Foundation's 2009 " Soul of the Community " survey of 28,000 people by Gallup: Aesthetic appeal, inclusiveness, and
opportunities to interact with other people
ranked as the top three determinants of
residents' attachment to their communities.
In his books, including The Rise of the
Creative Class, Florida documents major
economic shifts that may explain these
priorities. Public lands and green spaces
are integral to the new knowledge economy in obvious and not-so-obvious ways,
he contends. As corporate recruiters have
discovered, skilled professionals demand
outdoor recreational experiences close
to home. Yet the sprawling built environment of many U.S. cities and suburbs are
neither walkable nor recreation-friendly;
they are, rather, vestiges of an automobile-centered, industrial-age mindset.
" We have damaged our cities in terrible ways, and we need to change, " he
says, pointing out that the communities

20	 Parks & Recreation   M A Y

Americans of all demographic groups
find most appealing are green and walkable-and they feature town or city
centers that offer a vibrant, accessible
" functional core. "
Job demands are changing in ways
that may make parks a more central part
of adults' daily lives, he notes. Eighty
percent of the American workforce now
holds skilled " knowledge jobs " in which
daily productivity is measured by intellectual output. This " creative class, " as
Florida has dubbed them, tend to favor
a flexible workday rhythm in which productive, focused work time alternates
with periodic breaks for outdoor exercise and social interaction.
" Our models of urbanism have been
concrete, " Florida explains. " What we're
finally beginning to figure out is that the
'green city' is vitally important....The
good news is that some cities have come
to understand that great parks can rally
citizens and hold communities together...
and the most far-seeing mayors realize
that. " He cites New York's High Line and
Chicago's nascent Low Line linear park
project as powerful examples of communities transforming old industrial-age infrastructure into unusual and magnetic
parks. And Florida's own thinking about
urban parks as economic drivers, he
says, took shape as he studied the vital
role Pittsburgh's Schenley Park plays in
attracting and retaining talent for that city.
While cities around the United Sates
are taking steps to expand and green
their public spaces, Florida worries about
the suburbs and exurbs. " When I drive
through suburban areas, I don't see many
parks....[Instead] everyone has their own
private green space. "
There may be no simple solutions to that
problem, but the success of many " brown

2 0 1 2    w w w . N R P A . O R G

The good news is that some
cities have come to understand
that great parks can rally citizens
and hold communities
together...and the most farseeing mayors realize that.
-Richard Florida
fields to green fields " initiatives around the
country should encourage suburban communities to consider the public-use potential of vacant or under-utilized land.
Parks, whether urban or suburban,
" are the universal connectors " that create
more desirable lifestyles and chip away at
individuals' isolation, while inspiring love
of place. Florida advises park professionals to go before elected officials armed
with facts like the Gallup survey results. If
they communicate their message clearly,
" the availability of green space resonates
with the public just as much as the need
for police and schools. " 
Maureen Hannan is Senior Editor of

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