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The majority of public spaces in urban areas are underutilized. The development of their physical infrastructure is frozen, impeding social networking among residents.
Currently, more than a half of people around the globe live in cities. This population is growing rapidly, and almost 5 billion people may live in urban environment by 2030.
The current and future life in urban environment is unavoidable. It is up to us to create cities that promote creativity, advancement of collective knowledge, healthy lifestyle, and a robust local economy.
...the quality and accessibility of open public space impacts the social, economic, and cultural well-being of urban communities...
There exist neighborhoods where children do not feel comfortable and safe to play outside. Access to open space is directly related to development of obesity in children and adolescents. Poor and minority neighborhoods have considerably lower number of facilities and playgrounds that are freely accessible when schools are closed.
Quality of open space affects the walkability of neighborhoods. People in less walkable places with no open public space in proximity to their homes lack the ease of even simple physical activity, demonstrate increased rates of obesity and related health complications, higher risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and metabolic disorders, cancer, worsened mental health, mood swings, and the inability to do daily activities. Children unable to walk to school are shown to be less active for the rest of the day. Access to public space is also linked to disparities in rates of obesity between lower- and higher-income populations. Racial and ethnic minorities also have less access to public parks, playgrounds, and trails, along withmore barriers to using the facilities that do exist.
If people do not feel safe to go outside, they are less likely use public infrastructure. Poorly designed and non-maintained spaces discourage social interactions and getting to know neighbors. This alienation promotes social disorder, vandalism, crime, drug abuse, traffic violations, and littering, which in turn affects residents' sense of well-being and discourages the development of community ownership and responsibility.
A community-organized public gathering place increases social capital, revitalizes the community, and expands social and economic networks among residents. The density of playgrounds, parks and open public spaces in general also closely follow the level of completed education of the local residents. As the young generation's opportunity to learn new skills and have access to community spaces disappears, it affects the level of their marketable skills that in turn negatively affects the economic health of their neighborhood economic system.
Students who create or participate in arts for less than three hours on three days each week are much less likely to be recognized for academic achievement, to be elected to class office within their schools, to participate in a math and science fair, to win an award for school attendance, or to win an award for writing an essay or poem. Arts education has a measurable impact on at-risk youth in deterring delinquent behavior and truancy problems while also increasing overall academic performance among those youth engaged in after-school and summer arts programs targeted toward delinquency prevention.
The aesthetic appearance of the streets leading to or being close to open space is more appealing than poorly designed environments. As a result, the market value of properties that are far from inviting public spaces is lower.
Privatization and physical development of public spaces increases distance between the residents and remaining pockets of green spaces, forests and gardens. The absence of gardens and practical examples of food production deepens the dependency on centralized food industry that is located thousands miles away from the community.
Funding and support for new works of art in public spaces has been decreasing. Yet financial investment in the arts has been shown to multiply manifold economic impact and growth.
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