Since the economic recession of the 1930s, social reformism was removed from American park programming. Park officials claimed that parks needed not to be justified any more as they had become from luxuries to essential, fundamental and basic. This led in practice to the collapse of public spending into parks as now they had to justified. Financiation of American city parks relied more on private philanthropy. (Cranz 1982, 101-103; 176-178.)
The multiple use recreational parks
Since the 50s, the park planning was dominated by the recreativism, stressing the public health effects of parks. This philosophy is characterised by “multiplication of offerings, justification by demand and defensiveness of orientation”. This led in practice to the decrease of open space available for recreation. (ibid., 133-135.)
“If the pleasure ground had been a pious patriarch, the reform park a social worker, and the recreation park facility a waitress or a car mechanic, the new park was something of a performance artist” (Cranz 1982, 138).
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