HomeMy WebLinkAboutSubmittal-3Hit the Trail! •
How Parks Build Comrnunity
Partnering with Local Land Trusts
Plus
Reconnecting with the Mighty Miss
Conserving San Diego
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park," Martin says. "We have neighbors always
watching out for each other."
PARKS CREATE MORE THAN GREEN SPACE
The experience of Joe Martin and his neighbors is not
unique. Residents of cities and towns across the coun-
try have learned that banding together to create a new
park garden, or playground can leave a community
with a lot more than new swing sets, rows of vegetables
and flowers, and green space. Neighbors become more
willing to protect one another's families and properties
from harm. They arc more likely to accost or report
teenagers spraying graffiti or harassing passersby and
are more likely to mobilize to demand better schools
and libraries.
To social scientists, what these residents are expe-
riencing is the growth of "social capital"- -the social
ties, mutual trust, and standards of behavior that
enable people to work together toward shared goals.
Just as investment capital builds financial strength, social
capital builds community strength. Researchers have
found that, when compared to otherwise similar neigh-
borhoods with weak social capital. neighborhoods with
strong social capital enjoy fewer homicides and other
violent crimes, fewer property crimes, reduced juvenile
delinquency. better -performing governmental institu-
tions, higher educational achievement, and lower rates of
asthma and teen pregnancy Where social capital is weak,
neighborhoods fall into decline.
Some of the strongest evidence for the social
benefits of parks comes from the Project on Human
Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN),
a S5o million -plus interdisciplinary study on the roots
of crime, substance abuse, and violence. The study is
focused on a concept related to social capital called
"collective efficacy"- -social cohesion and trust among
neighbors combined with their willingness to intervene
for the common good. Collective efficacy can be built
through activities such as working together on commu-
nity gardens and holding community festivals in neigh-
borhood parks.
As part of the study, researchers interviewed more
than 8,000 residents of 343 Chicago neighborhoods.
Questions were designed to measure collective efficacy:
The creation by neighbors of Miami's Spring Garden Point Park has
led to a community newsletter, an eifort to guide development
citywide, and a wedding.
perceived levels of neighborhood violence, and actual
violence experienced by an interviewee. Researchers
also reviewed homicide reports for the neighborhoods.
The project found that neighborhoods with higher col-
lective efficacy experienced lower rates of crime and
juvenile delinquency.
Simply having a park where neighbors can interact
can increase social capital, says Professor Robert J.
Sampson of Harvard University's Department of
Sociology a lead researcher on the Chicago study. "It's
hard to develop trust and cohesion where you can't sec
people or interact with them," Sampson notes. And while
isolation breeds cynicism and fear, neighborhoods with
greater interaction enjoy "lower crime rates and a sense
of social cohesion."
RISE OF A MIAMI NEIGHBORHOOD
This has certainly been the case in the historic Spring
Garden neighborhood of Miami. where the creation of
a single park has led to a community newsletter, an
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Ernie Martin shows off the plan for Miami's Spring Garden Point Park.
family neighborhood, with an eclectic blend of archi-
tectural styles from Art Deco to Dutch Colonial. In the
late 19th century, the neighborhood was home to
Alligator Joe's, where tourists would arrive by paddle -
boat to watch alligator wrestling. In 1997, that land —
by then a I.1-acre vacant lot where the canal met the
river —was targeted for high-rise development. Fearing
this would destroy the neighborhood's unique charac-
ter, members of the Spring Garden Civic Association
(SGCA) approached TPL for help. Decades old but
long dormant, SGCA had sprung back to life in 1995 to
defeat a proposal for a commuter rail line that would
have torn up the neighborhood. It seemed like the per-
fect group to try to stop the land's development and
create a park.
By luck, Brenda McClymonds, TPL's regional direc-
tor of development for South Florida, attended church
with the property's owners. She persuaded them to take
the land off the market and give the community time to
raise funds and work with the city to protect the land.
The whole neighborhood went to work raising
money, applying for grants, and lobbying government
agencies. Residents packed the hearing chambers each
time a government body reached a decision point on
16 LAND&PEOPLE Fai12004
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Priscilla A. Thompson
City Clerk
"Creating and maintaining the park
has become a rallying point for this
historic neighborhood. The park is
small in size, but it has already touched;
a lot of people."
Brenda McCymonds
TPL regional director of development
creating the park. With TPL's help the neighbors raised
S6o0,000, including $300,000 from a 1996 county
parks -creation bond referendum, which TPL had helped
promote, and $300,000 from the Florida Communities
Trust, a state land acquisition grant program. TPL used
the finds to purchase the property in 1999 and prepared
to turn the title over to the city. The new park, called
Point Park, would mcsh perfectly with TPL's planned
grcenway along the Miami River corridor.
But the deal hit a snag. The city, struggling with
budget problems, said it couldn't accept title to the pan
because it couldn't afford to build and maintain a new
park. Spring Garden residents, who at the time had only
a sliver of park space, pulled together again. "We said, it
you can't afford to maintain it, we will maintain it as a
neighborhood," says Ernest Martin, a Spring Garden r
dent who helped lead the effort. In 1999 the SGCA
signed an agreement committing itself to raise the fun
to build the park and then maintain it for seven years.
Working together on Point Park is building ties
among people who would otherwise have little reason m
interact. The neighborhood has its own newsletter now
featuring a column on local history Once a month resi-
dents gather for a potluck dinner, chatting over meatlo,
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