Linear park

A linear park is a type of park that is significantly longer than it is wide. Linear parks are strips of public land running along canals, rivers, streams, defensive walls, electrical lines, highways and shorelines. Examples of linear parks include everything from wildlife corridors to riverways to trails, capturing the broadest sense of the word. Other examples include rail trails ("rails to trails"), which are disused railroad beds converted for recreational use by removing existing structures. Commonly, these linear parks result from the public and private sectors acting on the dense urban need for open green space. Linear parks stretch through urban areas, coming through as a solution for the lack of space and need for urban greenery. They also effectively connect different neighborhoods in dense urban areas as a result, and create places that are ideal for activities such as jogging or walking. Linear parks may also be categorized as greenways. In Australia, a linear park along the coast is known as a foreshoreway. When being designed, linear parks appear unique as they are planned around the public's opinion of how the space will affect them.

North America

Possibly the earliest example is the Emerald Necklace, which consists of a 1,100-acre (4.5 km2) chain of parks linked by parkways (a broad, landscaped highway) and waterways in Boston and Brookline, Massachusetts, U.S. The name comes from the way the planned chain appears to hang from the "neck" of the Boston peninsula. This system of linear parks was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted to connect the Boston Common and Public Garden (1837) to Franklin Park (Boston), also known as the "crown jewel" of Olmstead's work in Boston. The project began around 1878 with efforts to clean up and control the marshy area which later became the Back Bay and the Fens. In 1880, Olmsted proposed that the Muddy River be included in the park plan as the current dredged into a winding stream and was directed into the Charles River. Olmsted's vision of a linear park of walking paths along a gentle stream connecting numerous small ponds was complete by the turn of the century, but never completed the section to Boston Harbor. The subsequent development of the automobile industry and roads severely disrupted the original concept.

In some cities, many linear parks run through residential areas. In this case, the front of the house will face the streets, while the back faces a small linear park containing a pathway, trees and grass connecting different areas together. There are examples of this in some US cities and some Canadian cities, such as Saskatoon, Canada. Houses connected with linear parks are more common in suburban and rural areas where space is much less in-demand. In the 21st century, prevalent examples of linear parks that have seen high levels of visitors are the High Line in New York City and the Bloomingdale Trail in Chicago. The High Line in New York City is a 1.4-mile (2.3 km) rail trail and greenway, having been built on a portion of a defunct rail line as well as constructed to have greenery all throughout. Like its Paris counterpart Promenade Plantee, the High Line has been transformed into a linear park that allows for activities such as sight-seeing and exercise, while being elevated. The High Line's annual budget is funded almost entirely by park visitors, though it is operated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation license agreement. Bloomingdale Trail in Chicago is the longest linear park in the Western Hemisphere, and the second-longest linear park in the world, with a length of 2.7 miles (4.3 km), just under Paris' Promenade Plantee at 2.9 miles (4.7 km). Bloomingdale Trial was created by converting an elevated portion of the former Bloomingdale railway to this linear park, which features trees, flowers, plants, shrubbery, grass, light posts, and benches throughout. The greenway transverses through the neighborhoods of Logan Square, Humboldt Park, and West Town.

Atlanta Beltline

A linear park system under development in Atlanta, Georgia, is the Beltline. Part of the foundation for this project consisted of reclaiming 22 miles (35 km) of unused rail trails. Totaling approximately 33 miles (53 km), the Beltline will include a trail and light rail line on the existing tracks instead of a road. The vision of the Beltline is to attempt to balance out resident demographics within the city, allowing for all associated to the Beltline to benefit.

Beltline Trail, Toronto The 9-kilometre (5.6 mi) Beltline Trail opened in 1989 by using the part of the 27-kilometre (17 mi) Toronto Belt Line Railway Don Loop, which was last used by Canadian National Railway in the late 1960s. A few years of a public battle over the use of the former rail corridor ended in 1972 and 1988 after the City of Toronto bought most of the remaining unused sections.

Europe

In England, linear parks have also been created around waterways, especially in cities where the terrain is such that rivers and brooks have significant flood plains. Such land cannot sensibly be used for urban development and so it is set aside as a civic amenity. Milton Keynes makes extensive use of linear parks along the flood plains of the Great Ouse and its tributaries. In the UK, Milton Keynes ranked highest in a national comparison of open urban areas available to residents. In Greater London, Essex and Hertfordshire, the Lee Valley Park is a 10,000-acre (40 km2) linear park, stretching for 26 miles (42 km), much of it green spaces running along the flood plains of the River Lea from the River Thames to Ware, through areas such as Stratford, Clapton, Tottenham, Enfield, Walthamstow, Cheshunt, Broxbourne, and Hoddesdon in an area renowned as the Lea Valley. Greater London's largest park, Lee Valley Park is more than four times the size of Richmond Park, extending beyond Greater London's borders into the neighboring counties of Hertfordshire and Essex.

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