President Obama's commitment to protect our environment, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and invest in new green technologies is evident in the details of the $787-billion federal stimulus plan. Billions of dollars are allocated to programs that will clean our air and water, fund renewable- energy generation, subsidize alternative-fuel vehicles and build clean mass transit.
However, one crucial piece of our nation's green infrastructure is largely overlooked in the stimulus plan: metropolitan parks. More than half a billion dollars of stimulus funds are designated for improvements to our national parks, and that is wonderful. But there is no money specifically designated for our metropolitan parks -- an oversight that must be corrected.
Our cities never outgrow their need for such parks, as underscored by the recent announcement that Los Angeles has created a plan for a magnificent Civic Center Park that would stretch from City Hall to the major cultural institutions on Bunker Hill.
Looking back at the creation of Central Park in New York, Golden Gate Park in San Francisco and Griffith Park in Los Angeles, they share a history that is common to many great metropolitan parks. They were developed in growing urban areas during the latter part of the 19th century. Each was created by visionary civic leaders for the express purpose of providing a "green lung" for their respective cities -- a place where the public could escape from the pressures of city life into an oasis of beautiful trees, peaceful lakes and green meadows.
During the Depression, the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration -- two of the most successful New Deal programs in terms of employment and economic stimulus -- were heavily involved with park development. In California, the CCC was active in the national and state parks. The WPA constructed projects at Golden Gate Park, Griffith Park and Balboa Park in San Diego.
In his 1938 "Report on the Progress of the WPA Program," the legendary Harry Hopkins, one of President Franklin Roosevelt's most trusted advisors, wrote, "The development of parks and other recreational facilities under the WPA program is about as important in terms of either expenditures or employment as is the work on public buildings."
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That legacy, sometimes called Nature's New Deal, is relevant today as the federal government seeks to boost employment and jump-start the economy by funding "shovel ready" public works projects in 2009 and 2010.
