David Lorenz, a young architect and resident of the Eastown neighborhood, lives within walking distance of all the basic necessities of daily life. You name it he’s got it. A grocer. The post office. Pubs. Aquinas College. Several restaurants and coffee shops. Even a Blockbuster and a pharmacy.
But Wilcox Park, that wide expanse of public green near the intersection of Robinson Road and Lake Drive, is the one asset that he says really sticks out. With playgrounds and picnic areas, a ball diamond and tennis courts, and wide open spaces for lounging or soccer, the park basically has become an extension of the Lorenz family front yard.
“Wilcox Park has not only been a recreational and social venue for me and my wife, but we look forward to sharing these benefits with our children as they grow,” Lorenz says. “With a limited backyard, having access to a playground and space for them to run around with neighborhood kids is extremely valuable.”
Parks and green spaces are the cornerstones of any strong, vibrant, and healthy urban area. They contribute significantly to the environmental quality, economic competitiveness, and social appeal of any city. Yet public space is severely inadequate in most metropolitan areas throughout the United States, including the City of Grand Rapids, according to the National Recreation and Park Association. Fortunately, Grand Rapids is formally taking steps to recognize, maintain, and enhance the underutilized parks and green spaces throughout the city.
People have an innate desire to gather outside of their homes and in their communities. Citizens have always shown a natural tendency to congregate around open public parks and spaces with fountains and statues. Especially as cities grow and modernize, green space provides a necessary refuge within the urban deserts of concrete and metal.
Places to Play and Commune
Aside from streets and sidewalks, parks and green spaces are really the only outdoor public assets that cities have. Neighbors such as the Lorenz family come to identify with these places and slowly grow as familiar with them as their own living room. Recognizably, urban green space can be seen as our public living room. From recreation to meeting and socializing with neighbors, parks and neighborhood green spaces solidify a community’s sense of place and belonging. Not surprisingly, then, the better designed and maintained a public green space is, the stronger the neighboring community’s ability to build social bonds, engage citizens positively in society, and establish a distinct identity of place.
In public workshops across the country participants regular express the desire that parks should be more than just open green space and natural area. They want things to do, too. They want to interact with their surroundings. So successful parks incorporate a variety of amenities that encourage a variety of activities.
“Parks are where we connect with both nature and one another,” says City Commissioner Rosalynn Bliss. “It is where children play, where we gather as a community, where we go for recreation, and where we find solace in the midst of a stressful day.”
Put another way, one main threat to parks is if people only have one reason to go. The value of any park and/or public space increases as the amenities increase.
“The more powerful testament of the value of parks and green space is seeing children laughing and swimming in the city pools, people ice skating at Rosa Parks, kayakers on the Grand River, and families sitting in the park on outstretched blankets watching fireworks,” adds Bliss, a strong advocate for improving the city’s struggling network of parks and green space.
Two Shades of Green
Parks also play an increasingly integral role in shaping the economic success of cities and their citizens. Studies show that the existence of nearby parks and green space plays a pivotal role in where consumers choose to purchase a home. Well-maintained parks tend to increase the value of neighboring residential properties as people pay higher prices for a house in the vicinity of a public commons.
Commercial properties benefit as well. The primary way local economies flourish is if people are around. Green space, then, stimulates local business by enticing folks to walk around and engage in the city. Of course, these pedestrians are also known by another name to neighborhood businesses – customers.
The United States offers several compelling examples of the economic benefits that accrue to communities with vibrant green space. The successful design and implementation of Campus Martius, for example, a public park in downtown Detroit, has attracted retail, residential lofts, and a corporate headquarters to once desolate patch of urban landscape. Compuware moved 4000 employees from the suburbs and according to Bob Gregory, a General Motors executive planning the park, the company “would not have come downtown without the park. They didn’t want just a building. They wanted a lively district where their workers would have things to do.”
Millennium Park in Chicago was built over downtown railroad tracks at a cost of $320 million, most of it from the private sector. Today, the expansive public space, complete with civic plazas, fountains, green lawns, art, and an amphitheatre all fronting glorious Lake Michigan, is one of the more inviting and lively urban landscapes in America.
Before Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta was built, a square foot of adjacent property was $2 but by the end of the 1990’s, after completion of the park, the price per square foot rose to $150.
Closer to home, Rosa Parks Circle, located in the heart of downtown Grand Rapids, has become one of the most popular public gathering spaces in the city.
Grand Rapids Acts
Green Grand Rapids, an 18-month study committee appointed by Mayor George Heartwell, aims to establish more of these attractive places throughout the city. The effort, which kicked officially kick off this month, will focus on quality of life and the physical redevelopment of existing infrastructure as it relates to greening, connecting neighborhoods with business districts, parks, and job centers, restoring natural systems, particularly the Grand River, offering more recreation opportunities, and safeguarding public health.
The public outcry over the proposed sale of Indian Trails to private developers is one example that demonstrates how closely local residents value and guard green space. Clearly, they want more outdoors places and higher quality places like Wilcox Park to relax, play, and gather. Not less. Citizens can expect ideas and imagination will flourish as Green Grand Rapids stimulates discussion and city staffers compile an appropriate city-wide plan to maintain and improve parks and green space.
The ability of vibrant parks and green space to accelerate the revitalization of central cities is readily apparent in Grand Rapids and urban areas around the world. They stimulate an excelling quality of life socially, environmentally, and economically. Grand Rapids recognizes these values. Not only will she be known for her LEED certified greenness, but for her green spaces and public parks. In numerous ways, Grand Rapids is on the path toward truly becoming a green city.
Nikos Monoyios lives in Grand Rapids and is the senior planner at the Rapid, the regional transit agency serving metro GR. He writes regularly for
Recoil and Los Angeles-based
Wide-Eyed Nation.
Photos:
Grand Rapids City Commissioner Rosalynn Bliss at Canal Street Park - North Monroe
David Lorenz at Wilcox Park - Eastown
Tennis at Wilcox Park
Green space in Wilcox Park
Tree at Wilcox Park
Photographs by Brian Kelly - All Rights Reserved