Boston’s parks provide natural ecosystem services both to its plants and its bordering communities. They help manage air quality, temperature, and water. As a research study suggests, trees in urban settings can remove up to 7,111,000 tons of toxic from the air each year. Vegetation prevents temperature from becoming too hot, and it filters rain while protecting drinking water. Of course, in addition to the wonder’s parks do for the air and water, they also benefit wildlife by providing a space for animals to call home.
The parks and green spaces help Bostonians connect to nature and stay healthy. In addition to providing an open space that encourages a physical lifestyle and helps to relieve high cholesterol, hypertension, and obesity, parks have been known for bolstering mental health. Parks are said to alleviate stress and better cognitive functioning and attention. Those who spend time in parks tend to be less anxious and depressed, their happiness levels more balanced. While the presence of nature could serve as an explanation, so could the events parks hold that foster a sense of community, and in turn, help reduce crime.
Compared to other cities, Boston has made good use of a large variety of parkland. Managing 2,300 acres, the city works to bring local residents together by providing free entertainment and activities that cater to multiple communities. Boston’s summer programs that will take place mainly from July through September include arts and crafts workshops, a neighborhood concert series, outdoor movie nights, and watercolor painting workshops. There will even be paint nights taking place on golf courses.
With demographics consisting of 52.11% white, 24.2% black, and 9.82% Asian and the significant wealth gaps remain the median net worth of a white family being $245,500 while a black family’s is $8. Boston claims that all residents have access to parks.
Parks and those who have gotten to enjoy its parameters have remained in a state of inequity. Reports have been made indicating that people of color are at a disadvantage. Non-whites are said to have a limited 43% less park space compared to their white counterparts. Luckily, as Boston is one of the few cities in the United States providing all residents parks within a 10-minute walking radius. Unlike destinations such as Louisville in Kentucky, and Milwaukee in Wisconsin, Boston’s diverse locals and environmental surroundings have been able to benefit from the units of green peppered throughout the city.
Boston’s parks provide natural ecosystem services both to its plants and its bordering communities. They help manage air quality, temperature, and water. As a research study suggests, trees in urban settings can remove up to 7,111,000 tons of toxic from the air each year. Vegetation prevents temperature from becoming too hot, and it filters rain while protecting drinking water. Of course, in addition to the wonder’s parks do for the air and water, they also benefit wildlife by providing a space for animals to call home.
Boston’s Chinatown is about 10 mins from the Public Garden and Boston Commons. A thoughtful balance of greenery and water, the famous park has something to satisfy all groups. From multiple pathways to walk, a tennis court at its center, and benches to sit on, there is also the frog pond. During the warmer seasons, the frog pond’s vicinity includes a carousel for younger audiences, a spray pool, and offers free yoga classes. The even closer smaller Chinatown Park that sits outside the entrance to the Chinatown Gate contributes to its surrounding community by providing spaces for small and large gatherings. While children use the space to play, elders use the space for games. The City continues to look out for the Chinese population, conscious of the advantages and disadvantages of creating new park spaces.
With a $1.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation, Boston has plans to craft a green space over Interstate 90, the highway that has divided the Chinatown neighborhood since the 1960s. The city believes that the construction of the park is long overdue considering families and friends have been separated for quite some time. However, while Boston attempts to keep ethnic groups, lower-income households and pedestrians in mind, residents and community advocates vigilant that the city will not strip minorities of adequate space to live and thrive.
Well invested parks have good and bad potential. They can either deliver to its communities with no harm, or hurt them by making a location more competitive and expensive to live in. Sometimes they unintentionally kick communities out. The Seneca Village, made up of two-thirds African Americans and one-third Irish immigrants, once resided around parts of New York’s present day Central Park. It’s now vanished, as the populations that formed it dispersed to live elsewhere when the park was formed. It would be a shame if Boston followed suit, building parks only to see them hurt the very people they were meant to serve.
Therefore, the city must think carefully before investing in new green spaces. Creating public space is not a simple task, requiring lots of thought and debate about future implications. While parks have the power of good, they also have the power of bad. Will new or expanded parks enhance or restrict the lives of the residents.
