October 2018 - Parks & Recreation - 33

Best Practices/
Knowledge Networks
NRPA, in concert with our network
of on-the-ground experts in 12 cities across the country, is developing
best practices and practical advice
to help you achieve your 10-minute
walk goals. As part of that effort,
NRPA has developed a 10-Minute
Walk Learning Series (https://
www.nrpa.org/10minutewalk),
where you can brainstorm with
your fellow " parkies " on partnerships, community engagement,
equity prioritization or sustained
funding - a few of the many key
components to increasing equitable
park access and quality in your city.
NRPA, TPL and the City Parks
Alliance have developed Parkology™
(www.parkology.org), where you can
further engage with the parks community on tools and strategies to
increase access to quality, close-tohome parks. To further empower
cities to move the needle on park
access and quality, TPL will be
making the park locations and their
corresponding 10-minute walk service areas from ParkServe® available for public download so cities
can use that data to help prioritize
parks and open space. ParkServe®
is the first, national data platform
that's mapping park access in more
than 14,000 cities and towns that
are home to more than 260 million
Americans. In addition, to highlight the critical benefits that parks
and public green space provide to
people across the country, TPL is
establishing October 10 as " National Walk to a Park Day, " and
NRPA is proud to support that effort. I encourage all of you to walk
to your local parks, participate via
social media, and do whatever
you can to help draw attention to

the importance of having a highquality park close to home.

Research
Stay tuned for some exciting new
research from our friends at ULI.
The Open Space Case: Why Real Estate Leaders Should Invest in Parks and
Open Spaces report explores the benefits of private-sector involvement
in the creation, maintenance, operation and programming of community-accessible parks and open
space - ranging from enhanced
returns on investment for developers that include parks or open
spaces in their projects, to opportunities to increase equitable access
to green space. The report explores
innovative private- and cross-sector park-development strategies
and aims to motivate real estate
developers to maximize their project success by further focusing on
open space. This joint publication
by ULI's Building Healthy Places
Initiative and its Sustainable Development Council (SDC) includes
key insights gleaned from project
stakeholder interviews and case
studies, as well as highlights from

the latest research on the financial
and health benefits of parks and
open space. Visit http://www.
nrpa.org/uli-healthy on 10/10 to
download your copy!
Regardless of whether your community is near your goal of 100 percent 10-minute walk access or if you
have a ways to go, please use this
campaign as a beachhead to establish
your agency as the solution provider
to much of what ails our society and
to the critical role that parks play in
all of your neighborhoods.
So, on 10/10, take your mayor on a
walk to a park, invite your city councilors to take a 10-minute walk in
their wards, heck, get your whole
city in on the game and clock
where they'd end up in 10 minutes.
We may not always like the answer,
but the conversation must start
somewhere! Most of all, enjoy the
fresh air and exercise because, on
10/10, the wind generated by hundreds of mayors who've committed
to the 10-Minute Walk goal will be
strongly at our backs.
Kevin O'Hara is NRPA's Vice President of Urban
and Government Affairs (kohara@nrpa.org).

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Parks & Recreation

October 2018 - Parks & Recreation

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