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National-level funds can help offset inequalities between areas
Your area’s ability to raise taxes, donations, and other resources will depend upon a range of factors such as the
strength of your local economy, the sense of communal/civic pride, the health of the local charitable foundation
scene, and the vibrancy of local politics. All of these factors will vary from place to place. In some places,
resources from outside the city and state are likely to be very important.
Ceding tax-raising powers to local government is not the only role that national government can play in
terms of sustaining assets through tax. National taxes can also be used to redistribute wealth from richer local
government areas to poorer ones. A good example of federal funds being made available to poorer areas was the
Urban Park and Recreation Recovery (UPARR) program that ran between 1978 and 2002 and that members of
the Urban Parks Coalition are keen to resurrect (see Box 3.16).
Box 3.16: National government can help to even resources between areas
In the late 1970s, Congress established the Urban Parks and Recreation Recovery Program (UPARR) to provide
matching grants to localities in economically distressed communities, areas that, even if taxes were high, might
still not raise enough to fund community and civic assets. Over almost a quarter of a century, UPARR provided
$272 million for nearly 1,500 capital and revenue projects in 380 localities.
There are those that want to see something like UPARR in place again. In June 18, 2013, a New Jersey
congressman, Albio Sires, introduced the Community Parks Revitalization Bill to the House of Representatives.
If passed, the legislation would authorize the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to:
• Administer grants to assist localities in rebuilding, remodeling, expanding, or developing existing or new
recreational areas and facilities;
• Provide matching grants for innovative programing, with an emphasis on at-risk youth, returning veterans,
and military families; and
• Create a federal program that provides competitive loans, loan guarantees, and lines of credit for construction
or the capital costs of larger scale parks and recreation projects (this loan element is the key departure from
the UPARR program).
The Urban Parks Coalition, a network of like-minded national organizations and associations, which includes
The National Recreation and Park Association and the American Society of Landscape Architects, is actively
backing the bill.
This section has helped you to….
• Appreciate the inequality of resources between different communities and cities.
• See that national level funds can and sometimes have helped offset this inequality.
137 | The New Barn-Raising