New parks -- even very small ones -- can have a major impact on the way cities and communities are revitalized, according to this post.
"New parks can sprout up in the unlikeliest places. Low-income, inner-city communities are characterized by hardscapes – asphalt surfaces. When a community organizes and creates a plan for a new park, local governments can respond and purchase asphalt-covered areas like parking lots and transform them into public community parks. The average neighborhood park can run into the millions, but including a park budget in the initial master plan helps ensure local governments will finance it, and even partner with developers, local foundations, or conservancies to get it built. These types of projects can also come about if they are part of broader public-private urban redevelopment schemes aimed at providing housing, improving access to transit, and investing in the local environment."
Transportation infrastructure like old parking lots can provide convertible spaces for new parks, according to this post from Planet Forward.
FULL STORY: Revitalizing City Communities with Parks
North Texas Town Launches Downtown Revitalization Plan
The Design Downtown Denton plan takes aim at improving walkability and highlighting the city’s historic assets.
Depave Paradise: Reclaiming Parking Lots for Park Space
The promoters of a new park hope to provide a model for how replacing surface parking lots with green space can mitigate urban heat and boost urban biodiversity.
Reimagining the Social Value of Public Spaces
While they're often treated as mere assets to be maintained or abandoned for other uses, public spaces can be an active part of cities' plans for equitable revitalization.
Florida Considers Legalizing ADUs
Current state law allows — but doesn’t require — cities to permit accessory dwelling units in single-family residential neighborhoods.
HUD Announces Plan to Build Housing on Public Lands
The agency will identify federally owned parcels appropriate for housing development and streamline the regulatory process to lease or transfer land to housing authorities and nonprofit developers.
Manufactured Crisis: Losing the Nation’s Largest Source of Unsubsidized Affordable Housing
Manufactured housing communities have long been an affordable housing option for millions of people living in the U.S., but that affordability is disappearing rapidly. How did we get here?
San Francisco Turns On California’s First Speed Cameras
The city is the first in the state to use automated traffic enforcement to reduce speeding and traffic deaths.
Shaping LA’s Future: Public Voting Opens for LA2050 Grants
The LA2050 Grants Challenge invites Angelenos to vote on the top issues facing Los Angeles, helping direct $3 million in funding to organizations working to build a more connected and resilient region.
Chicago Transit Agencies on Brink of Major Crisis
Without additional funding, regional transit agencies will be forced to cut services by 40 percent.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Florida Atlantic University
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
City of Grandview
Harvard GSD Executive Education
City of Piedmont, CA
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
City of Cambridge, Maryland