Community Users & Non-Users of Public Parks

According to Levine, public parks and recreational areas increase community members' feelings of empowerment, social control, and sense of neighborhood. Moreover, the public parks/recreation areas, through a variety of programs, frequently keep teens off the street and so reduce area crime.

In addition to the foregoing, programs offered in and through the public parks/recreational system frequently fulfill special needs of certain community members such as persons with developmental disabilities. Due to the multiple benefits of such programs, Long and Kraus have noted that there is an ever increasing demand for public parks/recreation areas.

On the other hand, not all authors offer glowing reports of public parks and similar recreational facilities. Crompton for example, has noted that due to discount structures commonly used in recreation and park operations, programs are not used by a representative collective of the local community. Specifically, he stated that programs are almost exclusively devoted to youth and/or seniors. Toalson claimed that many facilities are under-budgeted and under-staffed. Ellis and Witt noted that many programs offered by public parks and not well planned in terms of the actual needs of the community.

What might be noted about most of the research and articles on public parks/recreational areas is that none of the cited studies are based on the perceptions of community members. Indeed, appraisals of c

Related Essays

Funding Problems for Parks & Recreation Departments .... on to form the basis of any community's parks and recreation .... The users of Los Angeles County parks and .... of being able to attain the .... financial objectives .... (4483 18 )

Security Pacific Corp. Public Policy Issue INTRODUCTION The .... Many .... bank organizations which could now perform some .... understood nor cared about the community in which .... self interests of recrea tional drug users and drug .... (5535 22 )

Tretment of the Homeless by the LAPD This paper will be concerned .... fled the scene because they were drug users and thought .... of this erosion, the people of the community are more .... homeless not have "a haven for ....-enforcement of .... (2057 8 )

Health Care Services for the Homeless .... indigent persons who must be provided community health care .... funders, health care providers, and users of health .... of health care services by .... physician health .... (2338 9 )

Health Care Services for the Homeless .... party funders, health care providers, and users of health .... among the most prominent of the .... physician health .... of trust between the homeless community and the .... (2258 9 )

data to see if innovative programs at parks are associated with reduction in local crime. However, this inquiry constitutes only a supplementary examination and is not the primary focus of the study. Research Approach and Design Research Approach The basic research approach was descriptive. According to Best, the descriptive research approach has five distinguishing characteristics: (1) Descriptive studies are nonexperimental in that they deal with relationships between nonmanipulated variables in a natural, rather than artificial setting, and since the events or conditions have already occurred or exist, the researcher selects the relevant variables for an analysis of their relationships; (2) Descriptive research involves logical methods of inductive-deductive reasoning to arrive at generalizations; (3) Descriptive research involves hypothesis formulation and testing; (4) Descriptive research often employs methods of randomization so that error may be estimated when inferring population characteristics from observations of samples; and (5) Variables and procedures used in descriptive research are described as accurately and completely as possible so that the study can be replicated by other researchers. Research Design Althou

Category: Misc - C