Wide Open Spaces

What if we didn’t have parks and open spaces? Where would we play, run, bike, and explore safely? Where would we enjoy a beautiful sunny day?

Since we found ourselves continually asking these questions, it made sense to create a Public Service Announcement video. In doing so, we hoped that the video would help encourage citizens to reflect on how they viewed and used parks. We wanted them to ask themselves: “What if we didn’t have parks and open spaces? Where would we play with our kids? Or exercise? Or simply appreciate nature? Where would we do the things we love?” We felt that the technique of using signs with different, real individuals would create a humanistic and personal feel for our audience. We modeled the video on the PR tactic known as the “Social Learning Theory.” According to this theory, people learn and become more involved and willing to join a movement based on seeing others participating in an action. You may call it propaganda, but it’s propaganda encouraging you to get out, get involved, and use the free parks and space provided by your community for what they’re meant for: living your life.

American, Oregonians in particular, often drive past hiking trails, running paths, and playgrounds. All that green can seem run-of-the-mill in Oregon’s lush, rainy climate, but parks shouldn’t be overlooked. Many citizens don’t realize that these open spaces are a vital component to the thriving  infrastructure of a community.

Parks give people in the neighborhood a place to be active, release stress, and spend quality time with their children or pets. The new spray play area in Washington Park in Eugene is just one kind of open space where adults can bring their kids. Spray play parks use clean water, aren’t bogged down with pricey disinfecting water systems (compared with wading pools), and are appropriate for all ages. Dog parks are also community spaces that allow people to bond with their pets. Owners exercise their animals, swap stories with other visitors, and make memories.

Open spaces promote healthy living practices for members of the community, just by virtue of their interspersed areas between neighborhoods and other locations throughout town. Childhood obesity is on the rise, but parks provide places where children can exercise and safely play in clean air. “Kids don’t necessarily constrain their physical activity to sidewalks, so it is important to look at greenness, which includes parks and yards, with respect to children’s health,” says Janice Bell, a health services expert at the University of Washington in Seattle. Bell recently conducted a study that showed children living in greener areas and closer to parks gained less weight over a two year period than children living in more urban areas.

Community gardens are another kind of public open spaces that promotes healthy living practices. All over the country citizens get their hands in the dirt and grow their own produce; in Eugene alone there are six different gardening communities. Gardening increases self-reliance, saves families money, and allows people to meet and interact with more people in their communities. Together gardeners learn about how things grow and create bonds with other citizens in the community.

Skateboarding has become a very popular sport for young teens; however, there are not very many places that welcome this activity. Luckily enough for Eugene skaters, a new, fresh, and well-designed skateboard park is in the process of being built in Washington Jefferson Park. This park will help clean up graffiti, control illegal skateboarding on private and other public properties, and promote positive activities for teens in the communities. A park designated just for skaters is valuable: they can improve skating skills, meet other skaters, and know they have a place to call their own.

Beyond physical activity, bringing together community members, and providing venues for people to pursue their interests, parks and open spaces also offer places for people to create healthy relationships with nature. The environment is an important aspect of our world. Open spaces allow us to teach youth how to treat the environment respectfully, to improve our observational skills and “discover” new things, and to savor the peace and majesty of the wild.The beautiful new Cooper Mountain Nature Park in Beaverton has 3.5 miles of gravel trails that take visitors through rare habitats that have been protected to save threatened species in the area. Nature parks, national wildlife parks, and hiking areas—like Eugene’s own Hendricks Park and Spencer’s Butte—preserve wild country and at the same time let people celebrate nature.

Our blog mainly focused on the city of Eugene. However, as we searched for current and up-to-date information concerning parks and open spaces in the Eugene area (such as developments and news), we thought it was necessary and smart to reach outside of the Eugene area and see what new and interesting things other communities were considering and planning. As a group, we decided it was important to use park news, developments, and links from around the country to educate the Eugene community.

As the term carried on, we realized that citizens in our community take for granted our abundant supply of beautiful parks and vast open spaces. Our goal was to create further awareness on the importance of parks in the Eugene area. Although some of our blog posts didn’t have to do with the city of Eugene, they were stories that we found interesting with innovative techniques that Eugene could use for current and future park developments. That included everything from using goats for natural, innovative brush maintenance, to park buildings being made from 100% recycled materials. We knew that incorporating natural and “green” ways to develop and maintain parks, was something that the City of Eugene would love and eat up (literally concerning the goats).

We are very thankful for the parks in our community, and we want to inspire others to support and use these important open spaces as well. Don’t forget to spread the word of our blog to your friends for local information on parks and open spaces in Eugene!

Thank you again from your bloggers!

-       Cody Dummer

-       Rebecca Sedlak

-       Erik Maurer

-       Jordan Roskelley