Dear Fellow Business
Traveler,
"Public space is for
living, doing business, lissing and playing. It can't be measured
with economics; it must be felt with the soul."
-Enrique Peñalosa
We're big fans of the public parks. They truly are an amazing
resource that I think we all take for granted from time to time.
But, I think we especially overlook them when they aren't in our own
home town. Everywhere you travel there are great parks that
provide a wonderful place to exercise, or work, or just simply
escape. We all know about Central Park, but that's about
it. Well, every city has great parks to offer, as well. In
this month's newsletter, we encourage you to get out there and enjoy
our parks. That's what they're there for.
To Your Health,
Healthy Travel
Network
 The city parks are ours... we should enjoy them.
park
(n.)
1. An area of land set aside
for public use, as:
a. A
piece of land with few or no buildings within or adjoining a town,
maintained for recreational and ornamental purposes.
b. A
landscaped city square.
c. A
large tract of rural land kept in its natural state and usually
reserved for the enjoyment and recreation of visitors.
2. A broad, fairly level
valley between mountain ranges: the high parks of the Rocky Mountains.
3. A tract of land attached
to a country house, especially when including extensive gardens, woods,
pastures, or a game preserve.
4. Sports A stadium
or an enclosed playing field: a baseball park.
5.
a. An
area where military vehicles or artillery are stored and serviced.
b. The
materiel kept in such an area.
6. An area in or near a town
designed and usually zoned for a certain purpose: a commercial
park.
7. A position in an automatic
transmission that disengages the gears and sets the brake so the
vehicle cannot move: put the car in park
and turned off the engine.
The major cities in the
United States have an average total parkland of 10.5 percent of city
land. That’s a whole lot of open space
acreage
available for you to use. Parks provide
a great escape from all of the concrete and asphalt of the urban
metropolises
we all travel to. Chances are that there
will be a park within relatively close proximity to where you are
staying on
your next trip.
Los Angeles, for
instance, while being the second most populated city in the U.S., has
almost
24,000 acres of public parkland areas scattered throughout the city for
hiking,
biking, climbing stairs, or even working out on pre-fabricated fitness
stations. These are all great options for
people who travel on business.
Having such inviting and
safe places to exercise not only makes fitness outdoors a cheap way to
stay in
shape, but it also keeps many of us from falling in the rut of skipping
workouts due to our busy life schedule due to travel, traffic or even
time. For those who want to head to the
local park with nothing more than a water bottle and an MP3 player
there are
the options of chin up bars and body weight resistance exercises such
as
push-ups, dips and squats. Parks with
fitness stations available usually have areas with instruction and
diagrams
showcasing these exercises among others.
So, head on out and take
advantage of all the resources that are already out there, begging to
be used
and appreciated.
We’d love to hear from
all of you. Tell us about your favorite
public park. This
will be a good way to exchange ideas and help other travelers with your
experience. Eventually, we'll build a
database of parks for each city that you can use to help plan your
trips. Just send us an e-mail to customerservice@healthytravelnetwork.com.
More Helpful Information
Here are a few websites
that are wonderful park resources and may even change the way you look
at and
think of the parks all around you.
:: City Parks Alliance
:: Project for Public Spaces
:: The Trust for Public Land
::
Parks Practices
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