[Bogue]

On parks: There's a lot of benefit to having them. It's a fact that people who work w/in sight of parks are healthier. They have lower incidences of absenteeism, lower incidences of chronic illness (migraines esp.), and have a higher job satisfaction level (meaning less likely to leave). At the end of the day, downtown is a business district. Even if they don't actually use them, the small parks still provide a psychosomatic benefit to those folk just by being visible.

Parks also increase local property values... thus attracting a higher economic class of people. They can also spur development on their fringes. Lots of the folks who've renovated on Bienville Sq. have cited its existence as part of why they chose that location.

Large parks in a downtown area aren't really that common. The large park in Atlanta (Piedmont) is actually in their Midtown area, for example. It's much more common to find these small-sized parks.

Mobile's verdance is one of its selling points. Look on Youtube and you'll find a video of a tourist driving around town talking about how beautiful the live oaks are... That's something done by a random tourist. In Spring, our whole city blooms. Greenspaces are the #1 indicator of how much pride people take in their city. That can be your front yard, the medians, or these small parks. In Mobile in Spring you can literally SEE how much people care.

If you read the article on this particular park there's an amphitheatre mentioned. Small outdoor concert venues can allow a number of options.... the outdoor movie idea floated a while back, for example. It's possible uses would depend entirely on its size, of course. Offer the use of the space to local bands on days when the ship is in town... that's something for the tourists to do as well.

I agree wholeheartedly that we need more tourist options for the new cruisers to take in, but we have to remember that these folk are only a temporary impact. What should always be foremost is making life better for the locals. When we increase our quality of life here we make the city more easily marketable to new RESIDENTS... much more of an impactor than tourists. That's not to say "ignore the tourists"... just that we have to think comprehensively on the function of our downtown & not just focus on tourism alone.

Marketing is an area where the city is sorely lacking. I like that there's a new "Go Coastal" marketing campaign kicking off, though. We'll have to see how that works, but in the meantime I like the idea of a youtube campaign.