Recreation and Parks

• Environmental protection
• Golf courses
• Museums and Entertainment facilities
• Libraries
• Natural resources
• Parks and Recreation facilities
• Zoos

Governments facing budget crises are considering offers from private investors around the country to purchase public parks and recreation facilities at bargain prices. When the tax revenues that typically support these services are restricted, everything from beloved national parks to neighborhood pools become targets for privatization.

When parks and recreation centers are sold to private investors, public access fees almost always increase. In some parks, users reported a 300% access fee increase one year after the privatization. The increases mean that many people may be financially shut out of parks and recreation facilities that were intended for public use.

Some investors are mainly after tax write-offs and have no interest in preserving the resources, so they replace valuable public green space with facilities that can increase their revenue, such as hotels, concession stands, and sporting arenas. The book Privately Owned Public Spaces documents numerous examples of private operators failing to keep promises to ensure that public spaces remain public after development. Cafes built in parks, for instance, include forbidden barriers to entry rather than signs inviting non-patrons to sit, even after the private operator promised the government to continue to encourage public use of the space.

Whether the government sells off parks and recreation centers to private entities or contracts out crucial functions of park maintenance to private operators, the end result is the same -- these valuable spaces are enjoyed by fewer people at a higher cost to the community.