The weekend is coming again. My girlfriend asked me to go to Silver Fall State Park. I immediately made some excuses such as the trip is long, and it is raining day. Finally, my girlfriend told me that at least we should go to one of the parks at Portland this weekend. With little reluctance, I asked her that can we go to somewhere else but not parks? She said that why not going to parks, and do you know why does the government need to build so many public parks? Well, as a lazy, low-GPA, foolish and poor undergraduate economics student, this question rouses my interest. Because of the higher land cost in big cities, the city is filled with more and more higher building. With the convenience of the high developing technology, we are all surrounded by those reinforced concretes all day and all night. One result of urbanization is that human are keeping away from the nature gradually. This is our choice, and also the restriction of the economics environment. However, the human nature of being close to nature and returning to nature hasn’t changed yet, and it will not change. Thus, there are public parks in the city. And therefore, the prices of the houses with natural landscapes are always expensive. Because the human nature hasn’t changed, and the desire of interpersonal communication strengthens, from the metropolitan city to the small town, there are many public parks that are built by the governments. This shows that as the landscape planting, the public parks are not only people’s need for leisure and entertainment, but also the passageway to be close to nature. Therefore, we have to say that where there is a city, there are public parks. The public parks make the city a better place for all of humanity.
Public parks are often nice and many are great places to hang out. There are examples though, where public parks are in dilapidated conditions because of a lack of funding or what I believe one could argue, a lack of government efficiency. In New York City examples exist of former public parks of sub-par condition that have been privatized. Since privatization the parks are flourishing centers of leisure and commerce involving local businesses and the community. Restrooms are well maintained and much cleaner than their public counterparts. Given the economic challenges facing many city budgets, I wouldn’t be surprised to see more public parks transitioning into private hands.