The county (Forsyth) that contains my nearest big city (Winston-Salem) is taking a look at their park system (Parks for 2020):
According to the county's parks report, the most recent annual operating costs range from $106,150 for Union Cross Park to $19,455 for Old U.S. 421 River Park. The Walkertown park costs $48,094 to run, and Joanie Moser costs $42,349. None of the smaller parks make a profit, but then, no county park does. ...
County officials say that there are 5,818 acres of parks and open spaces in the county, including land in city parks. Using a 2006 population estimate, officials said that means the county has 17.5 acres of parks or open spaces for every 1,000 residents. But Sanders-Pratt said that the county needs to add 643 acres of parkland by 2015 to maintain that ratio, and an additional 386 acres beyond that to maintain that ratio by the year 2020.
The county is looking for new ways to both raise park money and finance repairs ...
One idea being considered is a pool of money to match contributions that would be made by towns or nonprofit groups considering the creation of parks.
Another idea would be to allow Tanglewood to keep the revenues that come from those park activities that generate a profit, instead of putting that money back into the county's general fund. The idea is that this money could pay for needed repairs.
Dave Plyler, the chairman of the board of commissioners, said that it is difficult for a park to operate on its own revenue.
"Public parks should not be expected to make a profit because they are public parks," Plyler said.
I would have been quoted a bit differently:
"Public parks don't make profit because they are public goods -- both nonrival (up to the point of congestion) and nonexcludable (or too costly to exclude users) -- which justifies government taxation and provision of parks," Whitehead said.
