The only other time I had visited this park was when a friend of mine needed a lift to the Lake Park Bistro to pick up a gift card for her mother. We explored a little bit, but not nearly as much as what we did the other day. I was pleased to learn about the Lake Park Friends and how much they have done for the park. I recently worked with Juneau Park Friends to design a website and brochure for them to help get donations to renovate the park, and it was nice to see that there was similar groups among the Park People that are doing well.
I believe it is important to keep green spaces in beautiful condition. I recently read about a study that said in areas where 90% of the environment around the home is green, only 10.2% of the residents feel unhealthy, as compared with areas in which 10% of the environment is green, where 15.5% of the residents feel unhealthy. So there is some sort of correlation there.
It's also pleasing to know that Milwaukee brought in Frederick Law Olmsted to design this park. I believe this shows a great deal of thought went into the design of the park, and that it was important to have something beautiful to contrast the urban life that Milwaukee provides.
The park has been around for a long time and I enjoyed learning about the history of it and the lighthouse. It was interesting to learn that they had to move the lighthouse at one point due to the deteriorating bluff, and the lions bridges that have recently been brought back to their original structural integrity. I had never been up to a lighthouse before and was by far my favorite part of the field trip. The docents were very knowledgeable on the area, I just wished they would clean up a few of those cobwebs once in a while.
I might argue that preserving green spaces is far more important than the preservation of areas like Mount Vernon. It is important to have parks like this as the city expands and the population grows. Spaces like Lake Park provide glorious scenic views and wide open spaces that you can really get lost it. I almost forgot we were in the city last week when we were walking around. That was some serious alliteration there. For those reasons I think Lake Park deserved to have people like the Park people looking after it.
Westert GP, Schellevis FG, Bakker DH de. et al Monitoring health inequalities through general practice: the second Dutch national survey of general practice. European Journal of Public Health 2005;15:59–65.
Interesting post and commentary on the importance of greenspace. I will check out the survey.
ReplyDeleteI liked the fact that you mentioned how people feel healthier when they are near a green environment. It really goes to show that while planning a community these areas should not be taken for granted and they benefit the community greatly. Having never lived in the city before this year I have always been used to massive amounts of space with wildlife all around even in my backyard. I no longer take for granted this privilege.
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