Urban Parks

Guest: Ryan Gravel, Atlanta-based Urban Planner and Author of “Where We Want to Live”; Soren Simonsen, Visiting Professor of Urban Design at the University of Utah; Jamin Rowan, PhD, English Professor at BYU  The Center for Disease Control says “nearly half of youth live in neighborhoods without parks or playgrounds, community centers, and walking paths or sidewalks.”  Most of us live in cities built for cars. So, when communities decide they want more green places for walking and recreating—as is happening in cities across the country—the question is where do we put it? Big empty fields are hard to come by in most urban centers.  What cities do have is abandoned infrastructure—old gasworks, viaducts, and rail lines.  Using a hefty dose of creativity, urban planners around the country are taking these cast-offs from the industrial age and turning them back into greenspace. It’s like recycling land for a new use. But these aren’t your typical parks. And they’re often tied-in with other kinds of development like housing, transit or retail.