Care about the local economy?

“The widely studied and imitated San Antonio Riverwalk (a liner trail/open space located along the San Antonio River in San Antonio, Texas) is the major source of vitality in downtown San Antonio – the second most important tourist attraction in the state after the Alamo - and is estimated to generate $1.2 billion for area businesses each year.”¹

A recent poll of 204 Philadelphia businesses and 604 residents conducted by Terry Madonna for Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future (PennFuture), on behalf of a broad coalition of citizens' groups working together as part of the Next Great City initiative, found that “Both business leaders and residents recognize that Philadelphia’s damaged environment hurts the city’s economy and that improving the natural and physical environment will yield positive economic benefits for the city. Overwhelmingly, 92 percent of Philadelphians believe that environmental and infrastructure improvements are necessary to improve the area’s economic competitiveness and growth.”²

The survey results can be downloaded from The Next Great City

“People will travel farther to visit ‘forested’ urban shopping districts, are more willing to pay for parking there, will pay more for goods and services (9-12% more), and come away with a higher assessment of their experience.”³

¹Garvin, Alexander; Berens, Gayle; et. al. Urban Parks and Open Space, Washington D.C.: ULI – The Urban Land Institute, 1997.
² www.pennfuture.org/nextgreatcity

^{3 "}The Business of Greening: Enhancing the Bottom Line" from Strategy For A Green City, a publication of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, citing: Wolf, Kathleen L. “Business District Streetscapes, Trees and Consumer Response,” Journal of Forestry. December 2005, 395-400.