Agenda - Parks and Recreation Commission - 09/20/2001

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hydrology and the impact of wetland loss, it is likely he would have done something like tis," she says. The Summit Field restoration also gave the conservancy the opportunity to carry out an unbuilt element of Olmsred's blueprint."We were reviewing his plans and found this path over the summit and realized his intent that you could walk the path and experience the vista. That path is there now and when you reach the top the view is wonderful." A neighborhood anchor Ann Zoller, executive director of ParkWorks in Cleveland, points out thaw it is not always cost-effective to spend money on traditional capital improvements or recreational program- nizations, she concluded that refurbishing the park's basketball courts and installing new landscaping was not going to make a differ- ence over the long haul. "Community mem- bers said they didn't allow their children to go to the park because it was too dangerous," she says. It became clear that the first priority would have to be to help the neighbors re- claim the park. As a first step, ParkWorks hired local resident Mary Marzette to hold arts and crafts classes and supervise games on the playground. Rather than calling the police to scare gang members away, Marzette says she approached the group that hung around the playground. "I told them that we wanted to make the playground a place for kids to play. They said, Today, Walter Burks Park's role as a neigh- borhood anchor has been restored. It is now desirable to live across the street from the. park, Zoller says. "It is a place where you can allow kids to run and jump and fly a kite. They can get away from the difficult urban environment for a few hours and just be a kid." Costs and benefits There is no question that investments jn parks on a citywide or neighborhood scale can ben- efit the public. But do the park enhancements contribute to real economic growth? Mary Eysenbach, director of APA's City Parks Forum, believes that they do. "Long- standing research indicates that properties ad- ming. ParkWorks is a nonprofit organization that supplements the work of the city's parks department. It focuses many of its programs on enhancing urban parks in distressed neigh- borhoods. Zoller notes that neighborhood parks in impoverished areas were originally envisioned as a cure for social ills. Today, however, these parks are often the center of gang and drug ]atiVity. Walter Burks Park in Cleveland's enville neighborhood is an example. When rkWorks received a grant to revitalize dis- tressed urban parks from the Lila Wallace- Reader's Digest Fund, Zoller began planning capital i,nprovements for Walter Burks Park. But after meeting with neighborhood orga- 'Yeah, this should be a place for kids.'" Police presence was increased in a subtle way when beat officers on bicycles and in patrol cars began visiting Marzette's classes. "They play board games, show the kids their squad cars, and talk about things like law' enforcement and gun safety," she says. "The kids begin to see the police as people and not just as the guys that come to arrest you." Maime Gilchrist took part in the ParkWorks public input process as an active member of the 11 lth and Parkwood Street Club. She says that the park has improved dramatically. "Everyone feels much more safe. We take pride in our park, and it is much cleaner now." jacent to these parks increase in value. In addition, the parks attract people, who in turn attract business. Survey after survey indi- cates that the quality of life generated by park enhancements is the kind of thing that people look for when they choose where to live," Eysenbach says. This experience is true across the board. "Both young professionals starting out and empty nesters are attracted to features that make high-quality urban parks," she says. "The parks can have tremendous implications for attracting a good workforce, bringing in business investment, bringing in new corpo- rations, and encouraging international invest- ment. -1