December 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 42

B
eginning in 2009, NRPA's Parks Build Community (PBC) project
identified 11 parks in under-resourced communities in need of revitalization
(nrpa.org/ParksBuildCommunity). PBC worked with
partner and sponsor organizations and public officials to demonstrate
the transformative value of parks and recreation in communities.
In 2018, construction broke ground for the ninth of these projects at ABC/
Catherine Street Park (ABC Park) in Baltimore (tinyurl.com/4y6rnyhb).
Coinciding with the 2019 NRPA Annual Conference, the revitalized park's
grand opening occurred on September 22, 2019. To measure the impact of
this project, generous financial support from BCI Burke Company supported
a five-year evaluation of this park renovation from 2018 to 2023. This
evaluation project recently concluded, and, despite challenges exacerbated
by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, researchers reported several
promising outcomes resulting from these efforts.
ABC Park renovations included
the following:
* Resurfaced basketball court
* New swing sets
* Various new play equipment
* New exercise equipment
* New spray pad
* New benches
* New building for restrooms,
a water fountain and a small
storage closet
* Green infrastructure for stormwater
NRPA
consulted with Aaron
Hipp, Ph.D., and his graduate students
at the North Carolina State
University Department of Parks,
Recreation
and Tourism Management
and the local Carrollton
Ridge Community, led by Derwin
Hannah, to design an evaluation
that would measure progress toward
objectives and desired impact
of the park renovation on the
community. The final indicators
included recreation, access, social
capital, safety and economic development.
The evaluation included
data collection in 2018 prior to
groundbreaking and four years of
post-revitalization data collection
- from 2019 to 2022 - at ABC
Park and at a matched control park
not undergoing renovations
for
comparison purposes.
The evaluation results included
several bright spots, challenges and
lessons learned.
Youth users per hour on playgrounds,
swings, basketball courts increased and
sustained post-revitalization
10
7
Number of youth per hour
(December, non-school)
7
ABC, 4
5
1
2018
1
2019
2021
Matched, 2
2022
Park Use
The new playground equipment
- playsets,
swings and basketball
courts - appears to have encouraged
park usage at ABC Park
among youth ages 18 and under.
Using 372 observations of 9,620
individuals at both ABC Park and
the matched control park, evaluators
found a notable increase in
play-space use per hour by youth.
This pattern started with a jump
immediately following the
revitalization
that generally was sustained
four years post-renovation.
Visit Duration and Frequency
Surveys of adults within a 10minute
walk from the park both
before and after the park revitalization
indicated that self-reported
park-use frequency improved postrevitalization
and that the renovations
are drawing community members
to the park more often. Despite
not finding differences in the duration
of visits to ABC Park after the
renovation when compared to before,
100 percent of adults surveyed
reported visiting the park at least
once or a few times a week, compared
to 59 percent before the project
(a 41 percentage point increase
improvement in visit frequency).
The new playground
equipment appears to
have encouraged park
usage at ABC Park
among youth ages 18
and under.
PARK S ANDRECRE AT ION . OR G | DECEMBER 2 0 2 3
| Parks & Recreation
43
IMAGE COURTESY OF BALTIMORE CITY PARKS AND RECREATION
http://www.nrpa.org/ParksBuildCommunity http://tinyurl.com/4y6rnyhb
December 2023 - Parks & Recreation

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