September 2014 - Parks & Recreation - 15

Letters
We hope the articles you read in Parks & Recreation are thought-provoking
and engaging, and we want to hear your opinions on what you read in these
pages. Through social media posts, website comments, emails to staff or posts
on Connect, let us know how the magazine's articles apply to your job and yourr
agency. To submit feedback for this section directly, email Associate Editor
Samantha Bartram at sbartram@nrpa.org.

Dear Parks & Recreation Magazine,
I found a very old copy of your
magazine (December 1998) and am
interested in a subscription but don't
know if the prices have changed over
the last 14 years (!). I'm enclosing a
subscription card, but will you bill
me with the updated fees?
I had a summer job (1998) with my
city's park and recreation department.
I love being outdoors and having fun,
but mowing all the medians in town
was too much work. I got a hernia
from pushing commercial mowers, so
I got put on watering duty.
However, my sister and I would
like to get into the tourism industry.
We're thinking of doing something
centering around Native cultures,
storytelling around fires and a kind
of dude-ranch thing with more of a
Native American twist. We're looking for ideas and advice.
Handwritten letter from Sylvia Dailey
of Farmington, New Mexico. The
included card Dailey mentions, harvested
from our December 1998 issue, lists a
one-year subscription to Parks & Recreation Magazine (12 issues) as costing
$28 per year. Those living overseas would
have to pony up $34 for a one-year
subscription.
The success of the park conservancies is NOT the reason why
in North America most cities seem to
have a two-tier park system. It's the
12

Parks & Recreation

political incompetence that usess
such success to say that parks should
hould
be a private-sector issue. It's PUBLIC
BLIC
parks and it's a public issue. If a city
like New York City decreases its
parks funding from 1.5 percent of the
budget to 0.5 percent, obviously
parks fully funded by taxes are going
to suffer significantly. Governments
have to realize that the success of
Central Park, more than the funding,
has been great management that provides multiple uses and activities for
all. Such management is replicable
- all parks should have great management - the private funding is
not. Central Park is the only one that
has the wealthiest people of the
world living around it, and politicians should not use it as an example
for parks funding. If the new mayor
of New York City does want to improve parks, the challenge is to bring
back the funding to 1.5 percent of the
city budget, in addition to making
operations more efficient and increasing citizen engagement to make
sure all improvements are maintained over multiple administrations.
Comment on www.parksandrecreation.org/2014/August/Equity-inthe-Big-Apple by Gil Penalosa, executive director at 8-80 Cities in Toronto,
Canada. The nonprofit organization
works locally and internationally to
promote urban parks, trails and other
public spaces, as well as activities like
walking and bicycling

| S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 4 | W W W. N R PA . O R G

I like your article and I know that
you are concerned. I am a retired
(very old) full-time recreation person
from the Miami, Florida, area. I live
somewhat north of that area now. Your
statement, " We are the ones who will
watch the children and create the safe,
open spaces where they play, " sounds
good, but is a thing of the past in most
areas. Why? Because of " inflation. "
Cities and counties just cannot afford to
provide the necessary recreation personnel to provide the proper programs and
leadership that was accomplished back
in the '70s and '80s. Back then, we had
one or two full-time recreation personnel and some part-time leaders on most
every park. As you probably know,
when budget time comes, the FIRST
agency that gets the cuts is recreation.
But we are LAST in one thing: getting
new facilities. That is just the way it is.
However, where I live now we have the
best park and recreation director that I
have ever been around. He does the
most with what he gets.
Comment on Associate Editor Samantha
Bartram's blog post, " Your Park is Your
Family " (www.nrpa.org/Blog/Your-Parkis-Your-Family), by Edwin Delaney, vice
president of Martin County Golf and
Country Club and an at-large advisory
board member for Martin County Parks
and Recreation in Stuart, Florida

September 2014 - Parks & Recreation

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