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Articles on Public parks

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Investment in public parks can help reduce crime. Peter Titmuss/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images.

Crime is lower when cities are greener: evidence from South Africa supports the link

People may think that green spaces often hide criminals. On the contrary, there is evidence they contribute to reducing crime.
Finding a washroom during either a pandemic or a protest within a pandemic is an issue about how free and accessible our urban spaces are. (Shutterstock)

Finding a place to pee during a pandemic or a protest shouldn’t be so hard

Public washrooms are an essential service and the people who maintain them are essential workers. But what happens when a pandemic closes public bathrooms and a civil rights protest breaks out?
ArtFamily/Shutterstock

Why working families need parks and playgrounds more than ever

Working long hours and want to make the most of time with your children? Your local park is an ideal place for sharing experiences that benefit the whole family.
The lure of suburbia clearly remains strong. To deal with sprawl, planners need to increase urban density in a way that resonates with the leafy green qualities of suburbia that residents value. Julian Bolleter

GOD save us: greenspace-oriented development could make higher density attractive

Residents of the ‘leafy suburbs’ will continue to fear what they might lose to increasing urban density without an explicit planning approach that enhances green space in affected neighbourhoods.
Sea Line Park, one of the shortlisted entries in the competition to design a new park for the Melbourne of 2050. Future Park Design Ideas Competition

Why we need ‘crazy’ ideas for new city parks

Some might scoff at the free-ranging ideas sparked by a competition to design future parks for Melbourne. But the legacy of a radical idea to green a CBD street in 1985 shows why we need such thinking.
Parks are places where children make their own decisions, explore their imaginations and expand their abilities. Daxiao Productions/Shutterstock

Why suburban parks offer an antidote to helicopter parenting

Parents are more willing to let children do their own thing in parks. It’s a chance for children to make their own decisions, explore their abilities and imaginations, and weigh up risks.
A public barbecue in Lyndhurst, New South Wales, does the job but could be so much better. Mattinbgn/Wikimedia

The public barbie, an Aussie icon frozen in time

The need for public cooking facilities has long been recognised, but why has the basic public barbecue failed to evolve along with Australians, their lifestyles and the foods they eat?
Being in a park tends to make people feel more positive, although the time of day and the season also affect their moods. leungchopan/Shutterstock

Tweet all about it – people in parks feel more positive

The positive mood of tweets varies with time of day and season, but it’s consistently higher in parks than in built-up areas, where people are more likely to express anger and fears.
Providing green space can deliver health, social and environmental benefits for all urban residents – few other public health interventions can achieve all of this. Anne Cleary

Green space – how much is enough, and what’s the best way to deliver it?

Urban green spaces are most effective at delivering their full range of health, social and environmental benefits when physical improvement of the space is coupled with social engagement.
PARKing Day in Montreal, 2015. Amelia Thorpe

A day for turning parking spaces into pop-up parks

This Friday is the 11th PARKing Day, when people pay a parking meter, then turn the space into a pop-up parklet. It’s a day that invites citizens to rethink the city and their place in it.
Tracking what you stop to pay attention to and what you ‘don’t see’ can tell us a lot about what might be going on inside your mind.

The Panopticons are coming! And they’ll know when we think the grass is greener

Eye-tracking technology helps us understand how people interact with their environment. This can improve policy and design, but can also be a tool for surveillance and control.
Brian Halsey, 'Novem II,' 1981, 8 Color Silkscreen Serigraph

Are we in the midst of a public space crisis?

Many praise the internet as a democratizing force. But with online spaces replacing physical public squares as places for debate, what do we risk losing?

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