Parks, squares, street trees, and other
greenery and open space in are vital assets of a healthy and
livable city. The ecological benefits of these resources are
substantial: landscape improves air quality and lowers dust levels,
provides vital habitat and corridors for birds and wildlife, reduces
water run-off and erosion, and allows groundwater recharge. Trees
and other plants absorb carbon dioxide and thus lower the city's
contribution to global warming, an important capacity since the
phenomenon of global warming has recently passed from theory to
confirmed reality.
 These resources enable people to connect with each other and with
the natural world. They bring residents and visitors together for
enjoyment, recreation, spiritual renewal, and education. They
enhance the experience of walking, shopping, working, traveling and
living in the city. Parks and open spaces also provide gathering
places to celebrate the arts and cultural diversity, and engage in
political discourse and athletic competition. As such, our civic
landscape is not just an ecological asset but is an investment in
the social fabric of the community and thereby becomes a critical
element in the economic development of the city too.For example,
even though numerous studies have shown that parks and street trees
act to increase property values and hence generate more tax
for city coffers, few cities take the necessary steps to invest in
these revenue-generating civic amenities.
A sustainable city provides adequate (or even generous) access to
parks and safe and numerous playgrounds and recreation facilities
for its residents. What city residents do not appreciate beautiful,
tree-lined boulevards, which for some become their main link with
nature.
The first goal in creating a sustainable civic landscape must
therefore be the provision of attractive and numerous vegetated
oases and tree-lined streets, keeping in mind that whenever
decisions are made related to landscaping, these decisions also
affect the wildlife with which we share the planet.
 A second critical goal is the maintenance of this vital resource.
Parks, squares, and street trees are capital improvements, just like
investments in roads and civic infrastructure. It is bad business
practice to allow investments to be squandered.
The basis of adequate maintenance is two-fold: additional funding
and expanded public participation. Financial resources are needed
not only to renovate our parks, squares, recreation facilities, and
streetscapes, but also to ensure that the City creates a first-class
system in order to reap all of its ecological, economic and social
benefits, and to protect the investment already made in these areas.
Sstudies show that resident commitment to parks and open spaces,
recreation and street-tree programs becomes stronger with increased
involvement in hands-on activities to design, create, and maintain
these amenities. Programs that involve residents in the maintenance
of parks, squares and streetscapes in particular, provide
information and motivation to residents to support and expand city
services in these areas.
Volunteer programs are not, however, an acceptable substitute for
adequate civic commitment to fund urban forest and recreation
programs. Volunteers cannot necessarily provide the consistency over
time required in the normal maintenance of a living resource. Nor is
relinquishing management of public greenery to the lowest bidder an
effective long-term strategy for maintenance of this irreplaceable
civic asset. A living resource requires consistent funding for
regular, long-term management planning. It also requires a reliable,
skilled and experienced work force to observe the landscape over
time and to recommend maintenance based on these observations. Such
recommendations do not come from the lowest bidder with the
cheapest, short-term labor.
Source: http://www.sustainable-city.org/ |
