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What can we do to improve our parks system? What parks would you say could use renovations, and how would you like for them to be renovated? Where do you see the potential or need for new parks? i think improving our parks system, paired with a green roof initiative could really change a lot of peoples perceptions about Houston from being a dirty polluted oil dominated city, to an environmentally friendly, beautiful green city. Here are a few stats for why I think we could stand to work on our parks system. "In seven of the nation's largest cities, nine out of 10 residents live within a one-half mile walk to a park, according to the report. The seven are New York, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Washington, D.C." only 45% of Houstons residents (or half the percentage of the 7 cities listed above) live within walking distance of a park.. thats over 1.2 million people who cannot walk to a park in this city. (the average of the 40 largest cities in the US was 68%.. the highest was San Francisco at a whopping 98% of its population) Houston spends $40 per resident on its parks system a year. less than half of the national average ($82). compared to the highest spender (Washington D.C.), who spends $397 a year per resident on its parks, we spend almost 10 times less on our parks. We didnt even make the top 10 in any of these "snapshots", covering baseball/softball fields, basketball courts, swimming pools, skate parks, rec centers/senior centers, and dog parks. http://www.tpl.org/sites/default/files/cloud.tpl.org/pubs/ccpe-cityparkfacts-2012.pdf