Currently the United States has an
Obesity Epidemic
from fitCity 7
...But while obesity may not be the Black Death, it is a severe
public health crisis. Experts agree that as more and more obese children become obese
adults, the diseases associated with obesity, such as heart disease, cancer, and
especially diabetes will surge. That will
mean a lot of sick people.
According to Marion Nestle, PhD, MPH, chair of the department
of nutrition and food studies at New
York University, the costs of these illnesses will be
"astronomical."
James O. Hill, PhD, agrees. Hill, director of the Center for
Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, claims
that at the rate we're going, obesity-related diabetes alone "will break
the bank of our healthcare system." WebMD
link
Active Design is the idea that we can design cities and buildings to encourage people to get more exercise. This is not about encouraging us to go to the gym and working out more, but instead, it's about giving citizens more of a workout through how we interact with our environment on a daily basis. This could include walking instead of driving, taking stairs instead of elevators, and creating parks and other interesting engaging environments to walk through. By attacking obesity through urban design and architecture, governments are beginning to realize that designers might be their best warriors in the battle against obesity and its costs
link
Inexpensive graphics can be used to promote the use of underutilized staircases
from active design for affordable housing
Passive design: solar cellphone charger
http://www.nextnature.net/2013/07/free-solar-chargers-in-the-streets-of-ny/
Active Design; bicycle cell phone Charger
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thechargecycle/the-charge-cycle
The NYC deprtartment of health publishes active design manuals. DOH currently has these Active Design guides :
General introduction
Sidewalks
Affordible Housing -
Community groups
Currently there is no Active design manual covering parklets. This blog post is an attempt help fill that gap, until such a guide is published.
- Active park users were less likely to be overweight than those who had longer park visits and either used the park for passive activities or did not use the park at all;
- Active park use was negatively related to visits to a physician other than routine checkups;
link
Active design is one of the tools to help reign in this crisis.
What is Active Design?
Active Design is the idea that we can design cities and buildings to encourage people to get more exercise. This is not about encouraging us to go to the gym and working out more, but instead, it's about giving citizens more of a workout through how we interact with our environment on a daily basis. This could include walking instead of driving, taking stairs instead of elevators, and creating parks and other interesting engaging environments to walk through. By attacking obesity through urban design and architecture, governments are beginning to realize that designers might be their best warriors in the battle against obesity and its costs
link
from active design for affordable housing
Passive design: solar cellphone charger
http://www.nextnature.net/2013/07/free-solar-chargers-in-the-streets-of-ny/
Active Design; bicycle cell phone Charger
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thechargecycle/the-charge-cycle
The NYC deprtartment of health publishes active design manuals. DOH currently has these Active Design guides :
General introduction
Sidewalks
Affordible Housing -
Community groups
Currently there is no Active design manual covering parklets. This blog post is an attempt help fill that gap, until such a guide is published.
What is a Parklet?
A parklet is a small space serving as an extension of the sidewalk to provide amenities and green space for people using the street. It is typically the size of several parking spaces. link
link
http://www.missionmission.org/2011/09/04/new-art-parklet-in-front-of-fabric8/
Active Design for Parklets
Parklets are commonly places of passive activity.However, as small parks, they also provide a unique and
thus far unexplored opportunity to create spaces for
physical exercise. Given the cost of creating large-scale
parks in urban environments, as well as the public and
private costs associated with overweight and obesity, active
recreation parklets could provide a solution to help address
these challenges.
link
Spring Street Active Recreation Parklet
The worlds first permanent active design parklet is now installed on Spring Street in Los Angeles. It offers fitness zone equipment, Foosball and swing seats.
The parklet is designed using the same outdoor
fitness equipment found in Los Angeles’ fitness zones (see
description in Chapter 1). Various types of outdoor fitness
equipment are available and can be installed at the
parklet. Equipment used in a parklet should be relatively
compact and intuitive for people to operate.
link
Los Angeles is currently experimenting with 3 parklets, the above active design being one of the three. If the experiment is successful, L.A. wants to install hundreds of parklets.
Noregia parklet
in the days before the automobile kids could play in the streets....
...With the exception of Play streets those days are pretty much gone. but here's a parklet that shows some possibilities of once again allowing kids to play in the streets.
link
Morristown Bicycle powered Cellphone charger
In Morristown NJ they are designing a parklet with a a bicycle-powered cell phone charging station. .. link
I don't have a picture of the Morristown installation, but here is Charge cycle from Kickstarter
charge cycle in Flatiron Plaza , NYC
Lexington, Mass passive Parklet with Bike parking
"Last year, Lexington set up a bike corral in the same area as the parklet, and the town said it received positive feedback about the bicycle parking. Selectmen then decided to install a more permanent structure this year." link
Nancercize
Here's a couple parklets with benches...
link
link
to most people these parklets would seem pretty much paassive seating locations. but not to nancy Bruning. Nancy trsnsforms passive benches to active fitness equipment.
link
What's needed is to add graphics to parklets lo let people know that benches are for fitness too.
walking and seating
One of my neighbors had knee surgery.
She told me she now won't walk more than 7 blocks. Over the past year we've had benches installed throughout the neighborhood. she now says thanks to them she can walk further.
the availability of seating areas is geneally viewed as a necessary urban feature for older people: it is difficult for many older people to walk around their local area without somewhere to rest
World health Organization
The whole is more than the sum of its parks
An article in Landscape Architects Magazine said this about parklets...
Some city planners would like to use parklets more assertively. “So far each one has been something in and of itself, but we’re beginning to think about their potential as tools for larger change,” says David Alumbaugh, who directs the department’s City Design Group, which includes the parklets team. He contemplates using a series of parklets as a way to pull people into neighborhoods that otherwise might be avoided by outsiders, or concentrating them in such a way as to form a sort of traffic-calming system: “There might be ways to tie several of these spaces together…. A few years ago, any proposal to do something in the street was met with such resistance. Now that they’re popular, it’s ‘Why not do more?’” link
Tying together passive public spaces creates active walking spaces
this map shows all the public spaces with seating in the midtown south area. The white icons are benches that have recently been installed on avenues, these have allowed seniors to walk greater distances. The red icons are planned and proposed parklets with seating . By creating parklets that offer activities, not just seating, we'll give community residents a reason to walk to the parklets.
the availability of seating areas is geneally viewed as a necessary urban feature for older people: it is difficult for many older people to walk around their local area without somewhere to rest
World health Organization
The whole is more than the sum of its parks
An article in Landscape Architects Magazine said this about parklets...
Some city planners would like to use parklets more assertively. “So far each one has been something in and of itself, but we’re beginning to think about their potential as tools for larger change,” says David Alumbaugh, who directs the department’s City Design Group, which includes the parklets team. He contemplates using a series of parklets as a way to pull people into neighborhoods that otherwise might be avoided by outsiders, or concentrating them in such a way as to form a sort of traffic-calming system: “There might be ways to tie several of these spaces together…. A few years ago, any proposal to do something in the street was met with such resistance. Now that they’re popular, it’s ‘Why not do more?’” link
Tying together passive public spaces creates active walking spaces
this map shows all the public spaces with seating in the midtown south area. The white icons are benches that have recently been installed on avenues, these have allowed seniors to walk greater distances. The red icons are planned and proposed parklets with seating . By creating parklets that offer activities, not just seating, we'll give community residents a reason to walk to the parklets.
Parking day parklets
The most common amenities in permanent parklets are seating and greenery. Bike parking is the only common active recreation feature in the permanent parklets I've surveyed. This is curious because once a year on Park(ing) day, parklets are put up for a day only and on this day, a far greater variety of active features are shown ass possibilities then can be found in permanent parklets...
ping pong balls landing in traffic would seem to make this a bad idea. but what if a high fence on the traffic sides of the street kept the balls from going into traffic areas?
 |
| an Outdoor reading Room parklet is active design for the mind! |
http://tedxcsu.wordpress.com/2012/09/20/come-join-tedxcsu-at-fort-collins-parking-day-this-friday/
Twister parklet
http://www.downtownphoenixjournal.com/2011/10/05/parking-day/
 |
| The Van Alen bookstore parking day parklet offered an outdoor reading room. they are currently designing a permanent parklet, hopefully it will once again contain a reading room. |
 |
| more active recreation for the mind |
 |
| Thumblina park and community Garden Community garden parklet (permanent) in foreground, Scrabble board on table in background is parking day only  link 
Larry at National Park(ing) Day
link |
Special Function Parklets
This is a bike Share parklet
and this is a Bike Corral parklet
Both of these "parklets" are great for bikers, but do little for the other residents of the neighborhoods they are in. This is not very different from the old car-centric model of street use that they are replacing. What if bike share kiosks can be transformed from spaces solely for bike share riders to community spaces that benefit all who live in a community?
Here's a bike share parklet with a rock available for seating
Here's a simulation of a bike share dock with a seat and reading material placed on the sidewalk side of the dock.
This is a bike corral parklet with a seat added
Reclaim magazine
In both these cases a special purpose active recreation parklet that was useful for only one segment of the population was transformed into a general purpose one that will enhance walkability of the area, especially for seniors.
Here is a neighbor of mine using a bike share kiosk for exercise. By adding signage with pictures like this, to a bike share parklet it becomes a fitness equipment recreation parklet that everyone can enjoy not just bike share users.
the NYC bike share program will have 3000 locations if it reaches its planned size. By designing new installations with active recreation features for the whole community in mind, not just bike share users, this can result in thousands of active recreation parklets throughout NYC at a minimal cost to NYC.also see 101 Uses for a bike share dock
Fire Hydrants Parklets
I've seen cars illegally parked at fire hydrants, and read stories of fireman having to break into the car and put the hose through the cars window to get to the hydrant. Not good. what if these spaces became parklets that cars could not park in?
the No Park
link
Natalie Jeremijenko's No parklet would keep out the illegal vehicles and transform the space into a active community garden/bioswale parklet.
also see: The 10-Mile Garden
Custom and Standarized Parklet design
Most parklets are currently one off custom designs. Why?
A small number of NYC residents have architects design the houses they live in. but Most NYC residents move into unfurnished apartments or houses where they customize the interiors to their desire, but don't have to build the outer walls.
communities interested in Parklets should be given the same options.
-NYC bus shelters, Citybenches, newstands and Citibike docks are all standard designed items that have already been approved by the city and because of this hundreds can be installed in months not years.
By creating a standardized parklet outer shell. communities no longer have to worry about designing and approval of the shell.
the interior furnishing of the parklet can be
- custom built to a communities specifications and/or
-picked from a catalog of standard parklet furnishings
Community involvement over time
No matter how a parklet is built custom or standardized, once it's built it is generally not meant to be changed. You get what the original planners designed and rarely anything more.
How about creating parklets that allow the community to modify over time to fit their needs.
-put out a suggestion Box and allow the community to suggest new features for the parklet
-install a waterproof cabinet which can be initially stocked by the designers/sponsors and the community can be allowed to add new items to over time.
A swap box can hold, books, games, fitness equipment or anything that its users deem useful to share.
Space is at a premium in a parklet, this attractive bench..
.
can double as active recreation equipment storage
see play-fi for more examples of equipment to stock in the bench
Trash collection at a parklet is an important issue. This can possibly be done by the business sponsoring the parklet, a Business Improvement districts, or groups like the Doe fund. NYC is currently looking to get ACE Programs for the Homeless involved in plaza maintenance.
here's one way to klessen the trash issue...
Powered trash compactor
Trash is a real problem in public spaces that are not part of a Business improvement district. Trash cans overflow.
Gramacy park had free trash pickup from the DOE Fund
...But the free pilot ended on July 13, and without
any organization stepping forward to provide the funding needed to keep
it going, the five Doe Fund workers who were assigned to the area five
days a week are no longer changing trash bags or picking up litter from
the sidewalk.
"They don’t come here anymore, and suddenly there
was this volcano of trash," said Pamela Vassil, a longtime resident of
60 Gramercy Park North, describing the overflowing trash cans she saw
after The Doe Fund departed.
While the Sanitation Department's
three-times-a-week garbage pickup schedule has remained unchanged,
Vassil and other residents said it's not enough to keep up with the
mounds of garbage in the neighborhood.
linkParklets will be used for eating and will generate trash. I suspect like Gramacy trash may overflow in the area. A .big belly solar trash compactor might solve the problem.
link
This will save space in a parklet but this isn't active design.
If big belly could be persuaded to produce a bicycle powered model, you could have a active recreation trash compactor for parklets.
getting to the The five minute active recreation park/parklet
Nearly 45 percent of California teens who live near a park — within a quarter-mile of a small park or a half-mile of a large one — reported that they bike, run, play sports or engage in other physical activities for at least one hour a day, at least five days a week. Only one-third of teens who don't have access to a nearby park reported the same level of physical activity. link
1/2 mile = 10 minutes
1/4 mile = 5 minutes
NYC Plan 2030;Goal: Ensure all New Yorkers live within a ten-minute walk of a park. linkNYC Plan 2030 promises 10 minutes to a park. However;
-this is more than the quarter mile
-it does not promise any active recreation at the park
-it may not have the active recreation activity of choice for you
solutions:
-add more active recreation for different age groups to parks
-supplement this with active recreation parklets
-swappable activities that allow different age groups to use same space
References:
LA parklet toolkit
SF parklet toolkit
SF parklet FAQ
Parking Day sept 20, 2013
