According to John L. Crompton, who has studied documents about the creating and funding of public parks, improved health was one of the major arguments for the first public parks in the 19th Century.
In reviewing his article, I adduced the top reasons for urban centers in the 19th century deciding to create public parks, and then we played a Family Feud style game to guess those top reasons.
Here are my conclusions:
1 Alleviate diesease and contagion and epidemics. Taxes for paying for the parks would be offset by less money spent on epidemics.
2 Raising real estate values, based on Crompton's "proximate principle" that the value of real estate increased with the increased proximity to the park.
3 Creating enclaves to segregate the rich and the poor. The first park to act as a "lung" for proximate property was LLewellyn Park in West Orange. Good luck getting past the gate back then if you didn't live there!
4 Sustaining workers' productivity by being exposed to healthier environments. This was the age of the miasma theory of sickness: noxious air caused illness, according to science up until the 1890s, when the germ theory of illness gained ascendancy.
5 enhancing a city's image. Thanks Olmstead Brothers!
6 encrouaging social cohesion.
7 Alleviating crime.
8 control over the working classes and teaching those foreigners' children about democracy on the playground.
9 promoting education (aesthetic values) and self-improving forms of leisure
Our campers came up with their own list.
1 Recreation and enjoyment.
2 promoting healthful habits
3 relaxation
4 beautification
5 socializing
6 preserve nature
7 raise the value of the community
etc.
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