Parks for the People
The father of American landscape architecture, Frederick Law Olmsted, and a key contributor to the establishment of the National Park System, said of urban parks:
It is one great purpose of the Park to supply to the hundreds of thousands of tired workers, who have no opportunity to spend their summers in the country, a specimen of God's handiwork that shall be to them, inexpensively, what a month or two in the White Mountains or the Adirondacks is, at great cost, to those in easier circumstances.
Olmsted understood the relevance of urban parks to urban residents, especially those who may not be able to access the more distant park lands like Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the Grand Canyon, the kind of places for which the National Park Service (NPS) is well known. The Park Service is less known for its work in the urban space and therefore is less relevant to the lives of an increasingly urban America.
The arch at the entrance of Yellowstone states, "For the Benefit and Enjoyment of the People" and those who visit certainly benefit and enjoy this natural wonder. But those who live near Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Francisco benefit and enjoy that national park every day, as it is an integral part of their urban life.
Last updated: February 13, 2025