A Comment from 2002: Parks as Free Land?

A Comment from 2002 Parks as Free Land? The Human Scale of Public Space By Gregory Bush Many residents breathe easier because of the successful effort to save of our prime waterfront land at Bicentennial Park from becoming a baseball stadium. While a unique planning effort is proceeding to create a Museum Park in that 29 acres, the problems faced by the parks systems in contemporary Miami and Miami-Dade remain complex and obscure to so many. I remain concerned for the future of our parks in terms of the way we think about them, the continued lack funding and the potential to see them as cash cows. Residents need to remain vigilant and organized in the face of many seemingly benign forces which see open space as “free land” for a multitude of seemingly well intentioned buildings. Schools and racetracks, cultural institutions, police facilities and commercial enterprises continue to line up to make their case for building new facilities on the public’s parkland. There are clearly urgent needs for new buildings- for youth to use computers and for facilities for police horses are undoubtedly needed in the city. And many of the parks clearly need to be animated by new kinds of activity. But we also need to remeber the intrinsic value of well planned open space in itself. Remember that Miami has one of the worst per capita open space lands in the nation; it may well not be in compliance with its own requirements. A new Master Plan for a vision instead of smiling at every promoter who comes to the gate. Planning should always come before seemingly well intentioned exceptions are approved.Examining a number of parks in England and France on a recent vacation has also made me reconsider the problems of public space that we face here in Miami. Arriving in London and walking through Hyde Park on a late afternoon, I could see thousands of people plaything soccer and strolling through the acres and acres of beautiful, well tended grounds. Most of the parks I visited across the seas were places of beauty, contemplation and activity. They had a human scale to them that welcomed all people of all ages to stroll through them, play, sit and watch the world go by. They had activities for kids, shady walkways, statues, fountains, playing fields, and in some, small scale and affordable places to eat. Do these Europeans parks represent a kind of 19th century elitism as some have suggested in the face of new demands for racetracks and shopping districts ? That merely obscures the need for a newly inclusive and transparent planning ethic with a high value placed on enhancing public space rather than listening to the voices of those who would see park land as free land for the picking. Yet who would blame them- in that parks have been abandoned for so long. Miami officials have often been unable to separate forms of spectacular entertainment from the continual needs of a first class park system. Witness the fate of Bayfront Park. It’s too easy to blame the hot weather for the lack of use of parks or diverse cultural traditions behind open space or the wrongheaded notion that Hispanics don’t care about open space. The larger reality is that parks have simply been seen as entertainment zones for promoters offering deals (read tax revenue) to desperate city officials for the use of public space. This tradition needs to change. The prevailing wisdom has been that the embarrassing lack of funding for parks (in contrast to police and fire protection), the prevailing political indifference in terms of systemic problems, the lack of creative programming and lack of broad based constituency has all reinforced a public cynicism that any improvement can be expected can be expected.Yet something is also stirring throughout the Miami area epitomized by our success in stopping the Marlins from taking Bicentennial Park. Look at the popularity of Kennedy Park, Point Park in Spring Garden, Hadley Park, and at Marvin Dunn’s leadership in beautifying Gibson park, the Miami Circle, Virrick Park and Virginia Key. Citizens are investing more and more of their valuable time to save and improve their common space. Assessing the security, shade, accessibility, programs, and amenities of our parks needs to be done for all local parks. Renewing identificastion of parks as neighborhood centers needs to be heightened. Better land use planning needs to take place between parks, library and school system in terms of their common needs for space. The City of Miami’s Parks Advisory Board has promoted a process to forge a Master Plan for the entire system and hopes to bring people out in large numbers to reconceptualize their entire neighborhoods by reconsidering their needs for common open space. School children, professionals and neighborhood organizations interested in being a part of this multipronged design process should contact the Board by calling 305-416-1320.In that process, residents should access the raft of information available through theweb. Several interesting sites are the Project for Public Space www.pps.org and the Trust for Public Land (www.tpl.org) A series of rather simple ideas leap out that reinforce the need to not think about spectacular attractions but human scale amenities as we move forward in redesigning our public spaces. 1. Chairs bring people out to sit in their own configurations. 2. Shade Trees 3. Human scale activities 4. Attractions to parks tend to be enduring ones, rather than necessarily the most up todate. Such as fountains and arresting art and stunning flower gardens. 5. Simple food concessions 6. Safe walkways and linkages between public parks, including bus transportation, water taxis for waterfront parks, and common planning between schools, libraries and park facilities in the future. The bottom line is that some of our parks have often been turned into adjuncts to commercial entertainment zones while others have lacked the adequate attention to make them attractive places. Look at Bayfront park in that regard. By the 1970s and 1980s, Miami’s leaders didnt know how to conceptualize parks other than in terms of their bottom line impact. They had to make money. Its also ironic that dog parks and stables for horses now seem to animate the interests of key constituents more than oushging for security and programs in our parks. Miami tends to examine our parks in relation to the demands of spectacleand male dominated sports. Our reality is that we face a more complex problem of homeless in parks but that should not deter us. It seems clear that most European cities – as well as others in this country and around the world- cherish their parks because they have built a tradition around them. They are essentially sacred civic space, somewhat analogous to their great cathedrals, seldom threatened by promotional schemes. Their history has been written, the constituency in favor of them assured, and political leaders aware of the need for adequate funding. They have pamphlets extolling their beauty and meaning as tourist attractions. When will Miami area officials wake up to the fact that, even though a young area, we can build powerful public attractions and preserve our open space to benefit all our people. The city of Miami should build upon the notion that it is a real city, better than a theme park, a place in which people want to come and live and play. _____________________ Gregory Bush, Director of UM’s Institute for Public History and founder of the city’s Parks Advisory Board, has recently stepped down as President of the Urban Environment League.