From Fast Company‘s site (with thanks to GreenMap System):

Planting trees is an incredibly cheap and simple way to improve the well-being of people in a city. A novel idea: Public health institutions should be financing urban greenery to support well-being and air quality.

The Nature Conservancy: “Trees are sustainability power tools: They clean and cool the air, regulate temperatures, counteract the urban “heat island” effect, and support water quality and manage flow. Yes, they look pretty, but they also deliver measurable mental and physical health benefits to concrete-fatigued city dwellers.”

“Diversifying funding sources for urban greenery–and casting trees as a health investment–could also begin to close the socioeconomic gap in access to parks and green space, too. A 2013 UC Berkeley study found that compared to white people, black people were 52% more likely to live in sparsely shaded, and consequently, much hotter, parts of the city, and have less access to green spaces. While initiatives like New York City’s Million Trees NYC have made a concerted effort to create more equity when it comes to green space in the city, often, trees are added to neighborhoods only at the behest of community groups. Those with more financial resources, McDonald says, are often more likely to make and be granted those requests.”

“Kaiser Permanente, a large insurer in Northern California, announced last year a $2 million investment in public parks in low-income communities in the Bay Area.”

Soccer, improvised tennis, swings, slides, but could use a volley ball net here!

Photos from Stanton Area, Betty Hubbard, Audubon Plot and M’Finda Kalunga Garden

Thelma, Rob (and family), Jack and Audubon volunteers, Bob, Prince, Leslie, Hideyo, Sweta, Jim, Julie, Reiner, Irit and all the M’Finda Gardeners, The Lighthouse, Stanton Street Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), Chess players, Alison the Ladybug whisperer, Park Manager Elizabeth Martinez and all who make this park the best it can be.

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From Vienna:

Initial situation

“Children are socialised and have roles allocated to them which are specific to their gender. As a result [many] boys more often turn out in bigger groups, they tend to be noisier and assert their claims and interests more successfully. They take care of their needs [inadvertently at times] at the cost of other park visitors, such as girls, small children and elderly people.

70 percent of girls (and 44 percent of boys) believe it is not wise to try and share spaces already occupied by older boys, thus foregoing any attempts at participation. 82 percent of girls (and 47 percent of boys) who did make relevant attempts were turned away. In the case of girls acts of rejection were often accompanied by sexual insults, as well as threatened or actual sexual aggression.

Solutions

If parks are to be used by girls and boys on equal terms they need to be planned and designed in ways that ensure gender equality. Much depends on additional features such as teams of park supervisors trained in leisure time management and social pedagogics.

What matters most to girls and young women?

• Games and physical activities, such as
  • Volleyball, badminton
  • Rollerblading
  • Climbing, balancing acts, using swings
  • Basketball; football in their own safe environment
  • Niches for privacy (e.g. pergolas, low walls for seating)
• Safety, such as
  • Footpaths must be clearly visible (clear route concept, in direct line of sight to streets and apartment buildings)
  • Footpaths across parks must be well lit
  • Cleanliness in the park, clean and functioning toilets close to the playground or park if not in the park

What matters most to boys and young men?

• Playing football (cages and open pitches)
• Basketball baskets
• Skater ramps

What matters most to parents/caretakers of small children?

• Separate play areas for small children
• Sufficient numbers of benches and tables with a good view of the play areas
• Places in the shade
• Access to water
• Clean and functioning toilets, close to if not in the park
• Change tables
• Lighting – so that parks can be used after dusk in winter

From The Guardian:

“Aspern specifically takes in to account women and their needs…”

“Gender mainstreaming” is the practice of ensuring women and men are accounted for equally in policy, legislation and resource allocation. Proposed in 1985, it was enshrined as the UN’s global strategy for gender equality in 1995, but Vienna had adopted it years earlier. The city has since conducted about 60 gender-sensitive pilot projects and assessed another 1,000…

A] survey by the women’s organisation of the governing Social Democratic party led to a breakthrough revelation: roughly two-thirds of car journeys were made by men, while two-thirds of those on foot were by women. 

“They tried to think it all through, from how you get off the bus to get into your flat,” says Riss…[including] “eyes upon the street“…street lighting was improved…traffic lights were altered to prioritise pedestrians… seating was installed … pavement was widened, and ..areas were made entirely barrier-free, so as to better accommodate prams, wheelchair users and elderly people.”

The link between wider pavements, benches and gender…[ensures] equality of opportunity and access. For example, for an elderly person, a well-placed bench might make the difference between participating in the city and remaining at home.

“The redesign..parks… encourage … use by girls, whose number was dropping off from the age of nine. The addition of volleyball and badminton facilities countered boys’ dominance over the caged basketball courts… Improving lighting and footpaths added to their sense of security, encouraging them to linger.

In the absence of measures to ensure different users’ needs are taken into account, only those of the dominant group are served..”. 

“…Gender budgeting”, for example, introduced in 2005, requires each department to report twice a year on how their expenditure has benefited men and women equally. New housing projects must meet gender sensitivity criteria to be subsidised – a sort of checklist to ensure that mainstreaming is not dependent on individual interest.”

This morning long-time gardener, friend, beloved husband of Betty, and brilliant photographer and community partner passed away.

Play Fair for Parks

organized by New Yorkers for Parks

Audubon‘s ED Heintz:

BirdLink coming to Sara Roosevelt Park sponsored by NYC Audubon:

Lynn Kelly NYers4Parks firing up the crowd, Astoria Park Alliance, East River Park Alliance, Lower East Side Ecology Center, Sara Roosevelt Park and other Park organizations. Costa Constantinides NYC Council Chair of Committee on Environmental Protection, K Webster from Sara Roosevelt Park and Martha Lopez-Gilpin from Astoria Park, Sara Roosevelt Park’s Bob Humber and our former beloved gardener Sarah Aronson! DC 37 and more….

The Play Fair Coalition is asking for the following additions to the FY20 City budget:

Investing in Park Staffing and Maintenance Infrastructure:

• $10M means that once and for all, 100 City Park Workers and 50 Gardeners will have secure, stable green jobs.
• $4M provides an investment in natural forest care to help protect NYC from climate change.
• $65M would provide funding for more parks of all sizes to have full-time, dedicated staff to help keep things clean and green.
• About $8M would fund improvements for every GreenThumb community garden in the City.

Investments in Programming:

• $4M would fund more seasonal after-school programs and other programming for children and families.
• $9M means that natural areas and parks are better preserved, protected, and made safer.

More info here.

Check out FABnyc website

FABnyc is a team of artists, organizers, and planners working to sustain, preserve, and grow the cultural vibrancy of the Lower East Side neighborhood.

For further reading: NYC Environmental Review