Municipalities are trying to accommodate private exercise classes that want to meet at parks, with Philadelphia requiring permits and San Diego County, Calif., waiving permit fees for businesses and other organizations to use park space. In Buffalo, N.Y., BlueCross BlueShield of Western New York is sponsoring classes at parks starting Saturday.
Rochester, Minn., and Denver are trying to control the geese population at city parks by keeping eggs from hatching. Denver has also paused its culling efforts and plans to use dogs and alter landscaping to discourage the birds from gathering.
The Lathrop, Calif., Parks and Recreation Department is encouraging residents to camp in their backyards on Saturday and is selling activity kits for $15. "Anything that we can do to help families get out and do something together is great -- it might take people's minds off of [the] whole pandemic and give them a little bit of relief," Parks and Recreation Director Zach Jones said.
The College Station, Texas, Parks and Recreation Department is co-hosting a drive-through "Parks Pal Adopt-A-Thon" on Aug. 15 in which children can take home one of 1,220 free stuffed animals. The pals come with a 30-day journal, which children can complete and turn in to receive free pool membership for 2021.
The Woodstock Recreation Department in Illinois is holding a virtual event for people to run, bike and/or walk 60 miles, the approximate distance between the city and Chicago. Participants must complete the miles by Aug. 31.
Recreation and park agencies can remind people about the importance of conservation and the outdoors, writes Michele White of the National Recreation and Park Association, who offers several examples from departments around the country.
Black, Latino and Asian Americans have traditionally visited parks at a lower rate than white Americans, in part because minorities are written out of histories of the outdoors, writes David Schechter. "When we exclude minorities from the process of making decisions about parks, their voices are not heard," he writes.
Grants worth almost $29 million for recreation development and land purchases in Michigan have been approved by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. The grants will go to 78 projects including urban parks and playgrounds.
Officials in Lafayette, La., will prevent four recreation centers in predominantly Black neighborhoods from closing for a year by using Lafayette Parish funding. Parks and recreation is largely funded by tax revenue from Lafayette City.
As more workplaces go remote, managers are worried about employee productivity and because they can't see workers in the office anymore, they could become virtual micromanagers. Some signs of micromanagement include constantly asking for reports, over-scheduling, unnecessary monitoring and giving inflexible instructions, writes remote work strategist Laurel Farrer.
Today, the park and recreation profession is asked to be a service that recovers all or part of its costs, while still providing a level of social services -- can these expectations co-exist? Join us for a webinar Thursday, Aug. 13, at 2 p.m. EDT, as two park and recreation leaders review how to identify and address community needs, tackle cost-recovery goals and meet the mandate for equity in services. This is part of our Premier Webinar Series, which is free for NRPA Premier Members, $35 for all other members and $50 for nonmembers. Register now.
