My Athens

Classic Center Vs. Parks

In making the case that a proposed Classic Center expansion should get the lion's share of the 2011 SPLOST funds that aren't going to the critically needed jail project, Athens Banner-Herald business columnist Don Nelson claims:

1. The Classic Center expansion will boost convention business, and thus bring more visitors to town to pay sales taxes, generate more profits for local business and create jobs.

2. The expansion is a better return on investment for our tax dollars than investing in maintaining our parks infrastructure, greenways or transit stops.

Both claims can--and should be--closely questioned.

1. Does expansion = more convention business?  Not necessarily.  While it's a very frequently made pitch, expanding convention space and adding hotel rooms doesn't always pay off  for cities. For one thing, lots of cities buy into this idea that more is always better when it comes to convention centers. So, there's tons of convention space out there--and it's intensely competitive. For another, the convention business itself is changing as employers, tradeshows and other typical users of convention space scale back or are exploring web-based ways of getting together. (The downturn in convention business preceded 9-11, and the current recession.)  This 2005 report from the Brookings Institution--Space Available: The Realities of Convention Centers as Economic Development Strategy--outlines reasons for skepticism about the wisdom of investing convention center expansions.

2.  Why isn't improving quality of life for residents a good return on investment? Well, actually it is.  Good parks are good economic development investments for cities. If designed well, parks--particularly small neighborhood parks--can help strengthen community ties, boost property values, reduce crime, control stormwater runoff, cut traffic, improve air quality and encourage physical activity. They make existing residents happy, and help attract new residents.  Read this report from the Trust for Public Lands--The Benefits of Parks: Why America  Needs More City Parks and Open Space--to see how parks generate lots of benefits, including economic development benefits,  for cities and their residents.

Let's suppose Nelson and other advocates for the Classic Center are right that Athens stands to gain a lot from an expansion of convention space. And, at least according to the Classic Center's SPLOST proposal, past experience--in terms of exceeding event booking and hotel room usage goals--suggests that this might be case here.

Well, even if this is so, we've still have to grapple with the question of priorities. Personally, I'd like to see a larger Classic Center--one that's perhaps able to attract some bigger name concerts and attractions. But, if because of fiscal constraints, we have to prioritize either convention centers or parks--which it seems like we have to--then what's the best choice from an economic development perspective?

Should luring tourists here to spend money downtown be our priority? Or should investing in making Athens a highly desirable place to live be our priority? That is, should we prioritize investing in convention space for visitors or in neighborhood parks, greenways and transit stops for us to use?

Which economic development investment is more likely to help attract the kind of higher-wage employers we want to locate here? Investments for tourists? Or investments aimed at making Athens the most walkable, family-friendly university town in the South?

Unlike Nelson, I'd prioritize the parks over the convention center.

Do Loyal, Passionate City Residents Spur Growth?

What qualities in a city inspire the loyalty and passion of residents?

According to a study conducted by Gallup and funded by the Knight Foundation, the top three factors that lead to strong attachment to a city are its physical beauty, the opportunities it offers for socializing and its openness to a variety of different kinds of people.

We should care about this because, according to the study—entitled The Soul of the Community—cities with the highest proportion of attached residents experienced stronger economic growth than cities where residents reported weaker attachment.

Now, the direction of this effect is hard to pin down. Is it attachment that’s contributing to the growth, or growth that’s making the attachment possible? Or both?

The study authors don’t make a strong claim one way or the other, though they clearly suspect that attachment does help push economic growth. To show the plausibility of this, they point out other studies that show that boosting the emotional connection of employees does in fact lead to improved financial performance of the companies where they work.

If the loyalty and passion of residents really does help spur a city’s economic growth, then advocates of local economic development might want to change their focus.

So, instead of asking existing residents to spend tax money to attract outsiders—say, with job or development tax credits or financing the expansion of conference centers—these growth advocates might want to start pushing for improvements that make existing residents happy.  Such improvements might include neighborhood pocket parks, more sidewalks, a permanent public farmer’s market, property tax relief for low-income folks, better designed streets, more public swimming pools. Things like that.

The suggestion isn’t that trying to attract outsiders is bad, but that rather that the best way to spur economic growth—including getting outsiders to open their wallets here or move jobs or businesses here—may be to make improvements that please the people who already live in town.

Maybe good places to live in grow because they invest in what makes them good places to live?

How to Create a Small Park: Some Resources

If you’re interested in learning more about small neighborhood parks, here are some potentially useful resources for your consideration:

The Project for Public Spaces “parks” page, and branching-off from that page the “furnishing your public space” page and the “design and planning” page—both of which you can find links to on the right sidebar of the main “parks” page.

This 2005 book—Designing Small Parks: A Manual for Addressing Social and Ecological Concerns—looks interesting.

What’s the relevance of posting information about small parks? Well, I happen to know that some folks in Boulevard, where I live, want a neighborhood park. (I know because I'm involved with the effort.) They’ve (we've) just started canvassing residents via a survey (the image above is from the survey) distributed through the neighborhood listserve to find out what kind of a park they might want. Their (our) ultimate aim is to build support for including the park proposal in the 2010 SPLOST (Special Purpose Local Option Sale Tax) referendum.

According to a news account of a survey conducted for Athens-Clarke Co. Leisure Services department, the demand among city residents for small neighborhood parks is high—so maybe they (we) have a chance.  (It would be interesting to review the data from the Pros Consulting survey, but—apparently—it won’t be available for public inspection until Athens-Clarke Co. officially releases it or something.)