Urban Dog Parks

            Dog parks can bring people together, especially regulars who form strong relationships with other dog owners. It creates an outlet for social interaction, community building, and exercise. By bring a dog to a park for exercise it also allows the owner to engage with the environment and take a break from life’s busy schedule.

            

            While it seems that every major and minor city is growing at a rapid rate, it is important to maintain green earthy areas. There are now more households with dogs (43 million) than with kids (38 million) making the importance for an exercise outlet in a city that more important. Off- leash dog parks are the fastest-growing division of city parks with 569 in the 100 largest cities in 2010. This is a 34% jump in prevalence in just five years. The highest per capita area has 5.7 dog parks for every 100,000 residents, in Portland, Oregon.

            

            Through the implementation of urban dog parks, it creates a location for not just pets but also people to have a healthy environment compared to just city buildings. In large cities where extra space is scares, a dog park can create an environmental friendly area similar to a playground or a community center. While designating such expensive land in a city to a park for animals, it is a valuable outlet for not just pets but the community members as well. Dog parks can be a place to get some fresh air and get exposed to plants, greenery, and wildlife. These parks can prevent cities from urbanizing an entire town and completely removing these aspects from the environment.

http://cloud.tpl.org/pubs/ccpe_Dog_Park_Report.pdf

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2011-12-07/dog-parks/51715340/1

Community Gardens

                A community garden is shared collectively by a group of people on a single piece of land. They provide an outlet for community development, create social interaction between neighborhood participants, produce healthy fresh produce that reduced family food budgets, and conserve resources.  It can also create a new recreational interest for those involved, as gardening is often therapeutic. Community gardens are often rich green spaces placed right in the middle of a largely developed area, making them especially valuable.

                Community gardens are publicly functioning with ownership, access, and management. They create a need for labor as well as connection to the community and environment. They provide food security as the gardeners can grow their own produce as well as trade with others who have extra or need what they have grown. Gardening fresh produce will result in a healthier diet and can improve the users overall health.

                Many locations and organizations are jumping at the idea of using community gardens are sustainable small scale food production. The American Community Gardening Association (ACGA) supports community gardening by facilitating the formation and expansion of state and regional community gardening networks. They also develop resources, encourage research, and conduct educational programs.in support of community gardening.

                Macon contains several community gardens located in different key areas around the city. They are maintained by volunteers who mainly grow different types of vegetables like pumpkins, beans, and carrots.  The city still has a ton of empty lots, leaving several possible garden sites open for the community to develop. While the goal of these gardens is to bring the rich and poor together, it is tough to get enough people to participate despite the excess available land for gardening. As a result of this struggle, the farmers market was establish to help community gardens sell their produce to others, and to bring more people and businesses downtown.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_gardening

http://mercercluster.com/2012/03/28/community-gardens-in-macon/

https://communitygarden.org/mission/