Firstly, we would like to thank everyone who took part in the voting.
As shown in the figure the most important factor about leisure and cultural life in the city of the future is “Parks and gardens”. We touched this factor in a previous poll and dossier. When we had a focus on “Environmental Conditions & Sustainability” we had the factor green space, which was ranked in second place.
Regarding leisure and cultural life in the city of the future, “Parks and gardens” are voted in first place because they are becoming increasingly important as more and more people inhabit urban areas. An article by the Toronto edition of TheStar.com points out why parks are that important. In addition, the PenMetFoundation – a non-profit organization which was established to enhance the general health and well-being of the Gig Harbor Peninsula community by ensuring that all citizens have access to a diversity of recreational, educational and cultural activities in parks – has a list of the benefits of parks in cities. These include the following:
- Benefits to Individuals
Parks offer opportunities to enrich the quality of life for persons of all ages and abilities. Strong evidence shows that when people have access to parks, they exercise more. Regular physical activity has been shown to increase health and reduce the risk of a wide range of diseases, including heart disease, hypertension, colon cancer, and diabetes. Physical activity also relieves symptoms of depression and anxiety, improves mood, and enhances psychological well-being. Beyond the benefits of exercise, a growing body of research shows that contact with the natural world improves physical and psychological health. Older adults who participate in a variety of social and recreational opportunities benefit from the social connections and interactions that are fundamental to their well-being.
- Benefits to Communities
Parks have long been recognized as key contributors to the aesthetic and physical quality of neighborhoods. Today, we realize that parks are more than recreation and visual assets to communities; they are valuable contributors to larger community policy objectives, such as public health, youth development, job opportunities, social and cultural exchange, and community building. At the community level parks play a special role, they have something to offer everyone from young children and teens, to families, adults and the elderly; their presence can also be a cohesive force. They are more than places to recreate and relate to nature; parks can also offer a multitude of opportunities to engage in arts and music. A park can be a community focal point, a symbol of its vitality and character, adding to its overall health, well-being and quality of life.
- Benefits to the Economy
Across the country communities are learning that conserving community greenfrastructure – lands for parks, trails and other public open spaces – is not an expense, but an investment that produces important economic benefits. Research verifies what we intuitively know about the value of parks and related open spaces: they reduce energy use and storm water runoff, increase the value of neighboring property, and improve academic performance among teens. Studies have also shown that crime is lower in the neighborhoods where parks exist and visits to hospitals and emergency rooms are reduced when kids are given a safe alternative to playing in streets and parking lots. The availability of recreation opportunities and park amenities is an important quality-of-life factor for businesses choosing where to locate and for individuals choosing a place to live.
- Benefits to the Environment
Community greenfrastructure – parks, community gardens, greenways and other types of public open spaces also benefit the environment. Whether greenfrastructure lands are in ball fields, trails, trees or public open space, they are on the job 24 hours every day serving critical environmental functions that contribute to many of life’s essentials – making water clean and safe for drinking, cleaning the air and returning oxygen to the atmosphere, and providing habitat for wildlife, biodiversity and ecological integrity. In fact, conserving land for people where they live, work and play is often the most cost efficient and effective way to achieving a host of environmental health and related public policy objectives.
“Parks and gardens" is followed by the factor “Schools and universities” in second place. This is also a factor we touched in a previous poll and dossier. In the fifth dossier the most important factor of “Social services” was “Education”.
“Museums and galleries” comes in third place. Museums and galleries have a special value to all of us because they keep history alive and they have importance for people who enjoy history and art, or who are very interested in one particular subject. Especially art museums / galleries are for people who love paintings by very popular artists. In addition, they are a popular tourist activity.
An interview with John McAvity, executive director of the Canadian Museums Association, points out the importance of museums in a tourism context, “In general terms, museums have two audiences. We have the local audience – people in the community a museum serves – and we have tourists. These are quite different audiences, with quite different needs; a museum has a responsibility to try and balance both of those needs.” McAvity adds, “Museums are extremely important in the tourism industry, because if you want to learn about, say, the Gold Rush in the Yukon, you will go to a museum in the Yukon. A significant percentage – in some cases as high as 80% – of people attending museums are tourists. Of course, some museums serve primarily their local communities, and we are encouraging museums to serve their communities even more, because that is where their stakeholders and supporters are.
The factor voted in fourth position is “Opera houses, concert halls and theatres”. These institutions are comparable to “Museums and galleries” and especially made for performing art and live experiences. Other characteristics of “Opera houses, concert halls and theatres” are discussed in the following and inspired by the Valuation Office Agency.
Most concert halls and opera houses are owned by local authorities, although a few are run as a commercial enterprise by private undertakings, providing facilities for short-term hire, while others may be owned and occupied by trusts who may have charitable status. These institutions tend to be located towards the centre of towns and cities, varying in character from Victorian buildings of excessive height and embellishment to modern, compact, well-planned halls. Demand for the use of concert halls and opera houses varies considerably and most are able to remain in use only by the support of grants from local authorities or the Arts Council.
Theatres are the branch of the performing arts defined by Bernard Beckerman as what "occurs when one or more persons, isolated in time and/or space, present themselves to another or others." By this broad definition, theatres have existed since the dawn of man, as a result of human tendency for storytelling. Since its inception, theatres has come to take on many forms, utilizing speech, gesture, music, dance, and spectacle, combining the other performing arts, often as well as the visual arts, into a single artistic form. There is an interesting article on the implicit value of theatres – the importance of live experience.
The factor “Opera houses, concert halls and theatres” is followed by “Sport Facilities” in fifth. In a city there should be, among places to watch other people do professional sports (e.g. football stadiums, indoor arenas, racing circuits etc.), possibilities to do sports and be active: parks should include routes for jogger, cyclist and skater, there should be a large variety of sports hall, sport areas and more for private and organized sport. This is an important factor, mainly in times of an overweighting population in most urban areas.
The factor voted in six is “Playgrounds”. Playground are like sport facilities for kids. The following extracts from an article found on Bright Hub emphasize the importance of playgrounds and refers to the importance of play in early childhood.
The factor “Playgrounds” is followed by “Demographic structure” in seventh, “Grant and scholarships” in eighth and “Artists funds” in ninth place. On position ten there is “Zoos”. The two least important factors according to the results of our poll are “Fountains” and “National stadiums”.
The IULA 2007 goes to 
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