May 2014 - Parks & Recreation - 53

shoulders to rub with, but parks,
along with recreation programs,
can serve as a very significant
source of publicity, recognition and
desirability for cities. These factors
inevitably translate into revenue.
Whether inspiring tourists through
a visit to San Francisco's Golden
Gate Park or refreshing downtown
Atlanta commuters through lunches
in Centennial Olympic Park, great
urban green spaces are a substantial
factor in a city's attractiveness and
its economy.
If heavy out-of-towner park use
truly diminishes the experience for
residents, the response should be
the acquisition of more parkland,
preferably with some of the funds
derived from nonresidents. And
therein often lies the rub. Many city
councils treat their park systems as
one-way streets, happily accepting
money they indirectly bring in but
tightly limiting the spending budget.
Park departments are funded
mostly through the residential tax
base, with small boosts coming from
user fees and the occasional state or
federal grant. Virtually all the agencies
experience a major gap between what
they get and what they need. Tourism
and commuter revenue could help
close that divide. But to get there,
park advocates must make the case
that parks are a significant cog in the
tourism machine. This hasn't been
done yet, partially because tourism
agencies themselves are surprisingly
ignorant of the underlying reasons
that visitors come to cities. They
know how many people stay at
hotels and eat at restaurants, and
it's easy to track how many come
for conventions, but few study all
the reasons the average visitor visits.
Often it involves an event in a park or
even the very park itself.
Meanwhile, most park departments
themselves don't have the funds to

count and analyze their users' places
of residence or reasons for coming.
" It perpetuates the data vacuum, "
says Texas A&M Professor John
Crompton, who has written and
spoken extensively about the problem
and even served two terms on his
city's council to try to make some

changes. " Time after time with
things like sports tournaments, the
park department has to apologize
for a programming deficit while
the tourism agency gets lauded
for generating fantastic hotel and
restaurant revenue - and it's all from
the same event! "

Parks for Whom?
Nonresidents as a Percent of People on the Street
City

Residential
Population

Average
Tourists
per day

Daily
Commuters

Daytime
NonresiPopulation dents as
Percent of
People on
the Street

Washington, DC

617,996

158,845

498,780

1,275,621

51.6%

Miami, FL

408,760

60,467

250,939

720,166

43.2%

Irvine, CA

215,511

9,310

124,254

349,075

38.3%

Birmingham, AL

211,458

14,418

102,601

328,477

35.6%

Las Vegas, NV

589,340

170,307

67,274

826,921

28.7%

San Francisco, CA

812,826

129,499

177,623

1,119,948

27.4%

Anaheim, CA

341,348

96,767

26,565

464,680

26.5%

Scottsdale, AZ

221,007

23,653

54,118

298,778

26.0%

Baton Rouge, LA

230,148

9,863

69,410

309,421

25.6%

Charlotte, NC

751,074

98,630

134,410

984,114

23.7%

Omaha, NE

415,076

38,356

84,701

538,133

22.9%

Dallas, TX

1,223,378

136,828

224,494

1,584,700

22.8%

Nashville, TN

609,637

73,745

100,037

783,419

22.2%

Indianapolis, IN

824,232

76,616

132,251

1,033,099

20.2%

San Diego, CA

1,326,183

140,589

169,779

1,636,551

19.0%

Louisville, KY

602,037

60,082

64,765

726,884

17.2%

San Antonio, TX

1,359,730

159,562

112,496

1,631,788

16.7%

Lexington, KY

301,569

20,970

32,934

355,473

15.2%

Plano, TX

271,380

10,984

36,734

319,098

15.0%

Chicago, IL

2,707,123

273,545

199,487

3,180,155

14.9%

Tucson, AZ

525,798

37,511

51,013

614,322

14.4%

Albuquerque, NM

552,801

48,466

30,606

631,873

12.5%

Jacksonville, FL

827,909

32,603

81,857

942,369

12.1%

New York, NY

8,244,910

432,658

626,489

9,304,057

11.4%

Philadelphia, PA

1,536,471

79,279

117,001

1,732,751

11.3%

Milwaukee, WI

597,884

19,260

42,313

659,457

9.3%

Toledo, OH

286,033

5,240

18,306

309,579

7.6%

Lubbock, TX

233,735

2,173

12,058

247,966

5.7%

El Paso, TX

665,577

15,956

12,882

694,415

4.2%

Glendale, AZ

230,466

10,959

-30,065

211,360

-9.0%

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Parks & Recreation

51
May 2014 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of May 2014 - Parks & Recreation
