Spatial scales and their attributes 212000,Ishikawa2001). One could add the attractiveness and safety of local routes
toand from a park as important to park planning. The focus here, however, is
on parks themselves.
Is it better for a city park to be relatively homogeneous and different from
other parks, or for it to be quite heterogeneous and similar to other parks
(Forman2004a)? In the first case, each park can be relatively large and impor-
tant for a single land use, say ballfields or semi-natural vegetation. Thus the park
system, as a whole, contains a collection of large specialized flagship parks. In
thesecond case, each park has a similar wide diversity of small land-use spaces
packed together. Yet the system as, a whole, is monotonous and missing the
large flagship land-use spaces.
Advantagesand disadvantages of these extremes are evident. The homoge-
neous large-land-use park permits specialization, such as unusually high-quality
ballfields or a semi-natural area with somewhat rare species. It is apt to draw
‘‘ specialized” residents from, and have some positive effect on, a larger radius
within the city. In contrast, the heterogeneous park of small land-use areas
packed together draws ‘‘all” residents from, and has a stronger positive effect on,
asmaller radius. The homogeneous park is likely to be a source of some uncom-
mon species which disperse through the surrounding neighborhoods (Houck
and Cody 2000, Wein 2006). More species may disperse from the heterogeneous
parks, but nearly all of the species are common (Boada and Capdevila2000).
Consider the interactions between parks, and between park and neighbor-
hood. If all parks have similar and diverse small land-use spaces, they attract
residents from small circles around them. Therefore a high density of parks is
needed to serve everyone. Local residents tend to have pride in and help care
forsuch parks. Common species can be expected to move readily among these
similar parks. On the other hand, specialized dissimilar parks draw residents
from broadly overlapping circles, but may not engender as much pride and care
bylocal residents. Here the somewhat different species in each park, including
some uncommon species, are less likely to move between parks because the land
cover in each park is so different.
Forthe diverse-land-use park, higher maintenance budgets may be needed
todeal with the ever-prevalent conflicts among land uses. Confounding the sit-
uation, government and especially park-maintenance budgets often fluctuate
markedly over time. Consequently, land care by local residents is important to
getthrough low-budget phases without major degradation of a park.
Providing attractive and safe walkways and other transportation modes that
radiate from parks should enhance park usage, pride, and care by residents. Also
green strips radiating outward from a park provide routes for species to move
through and enrich a neighborhood. These corridors may be greenways, tree