Great piece (loud sigh about liability insurance).
One more thing I would add for better public life and parks are public bathrooms. The park near me has a bathroom but it's only open for the few hours of 2.5 months when the wading pool is open. What a waste. And most places don't even have that. It can also allow more small businesses if they don't have to provide (as many or any) private bathrooms. It's a dignity issue, an affordability issue, an economic issue, a health issue, a care issue (as I'm sure you both know!). The lack of public facilities is probably part of why they don't want alcohol in parks - but really it should be one more reason to provide them!
These are some good suggestions. One thing that I don't see talked about much is giving people at parks things to do. Of course, sometimes open green space is desirable, but too many parks feel somewhat barren - they're just sunny open spaces with grass, and maybe a few small trees. At minimum I'd love to see more shaded areas and seating. Gazebos and more trees can help here. The addition of public-use grills and fire pits would be great. Going further, and taking inspiration from Montreal, we could add public fitness equipment such as that offered by this company: https://www.playlsi.com/en/ad/fitcore-extreme/ (n.b. I have no affiliation with them). These amenities give people reasons to meet up in the park, and gives them natural-feeling ways to occupy their time while they're there, all without requiring them to spend money.
Great piece (loud sigh about liability insurance).
One more thing I would add for better public life and parks are public bathrooms. The park near me has a bathroom but it's only open for the few hours of 2.5 months when the wading pool is open. What a waste. And most places don't even have that. It can also allow more small businesses if they don't have to provide (as many or any) private bathrooms. It's a dignity issue, an affordability issue, an economic issue, a health issue, a care issue (as I'm sure you both know!). The lack of public facilities is probably part of why they don't want alcohol in parks - but really it should be one more reason to provide them!
These are some good suggestions. One thing that I don't see talked about much is giving people at parks things to do. Of course, sometimes open green space is desirable, but too many parks feel somewhat barren - they're just sunny open spaces with grass, and maybe a few small trees. At minimum I'd love to see more shaded areas and seating. Gazebos and more trees can help here. The addition of public-use grills and fire pits would be great. Going further, and taking inspiration from Montreal, we could add public fitness equipment such as that offered by this company: https://www.playlsi.com/en/ad/fitcore-extreme/ (n.b. I have no affiliation with them). These amenities give people reasons to meet up in the park, and gives them natural-feeling ways to occupy their time while they're there, all without requiring them to spend money.