As a wrap-up of our celebration of July’s “Parks Make Life Better!” Month, we reflected on how lucky we are to be part of a profession that brings so many people joy. Melissa Ruth, Dave Rubin, Iqra Anwar, Kelly Kong, and our intern Ronald Ho; all members of our Recreate Action Group got a special boost of that joy when we toured a few parks in San Francisco. Our goals for the tour were to observe, critique, experience, and of course “recreate”! We took photographs, enjoyed each other’s company, and sampled some amazing Singaporean street food from one of the many food trucks we found. When exploring parks in San Francisco, you already know you will get views of towering skyscrapers, bridges, and the bay. The parks we toured took full advantage of this spectacular scenery.
As park professionals, we tend to explore park spaces with a different perspective than the usual park user. We pay close attention to construction details, plant identification, spatial organization, and materials. In these parks we visited, you can’t help but look up and out and then think about the views looking in. As we look inward from another perspective, it helps us gain a better understanding of how park spaces not only attract people but how they support the community where it resides. “Parks Make Life Better” for many reasons, there are too many to list here, but for this visit, in particular, made us pause and reflect, and gave us an opportunity to have fun outside the office together!
