Keeping Commitments

Communities become Playful City USA communities by meeting five principal commitments:

• Creating a local play commission;
• Designing an annual action plan for play;
• Conducting a playspace audit of all publicly accessible play areas;
• Identifying current spending on capital projects and maintenance of playspaces;
• Proclaiming and celebrating an annual "KaBOOM! Play Day".

This blog will continue to update progress over time on all five commitments. For now, here's a snapshot:

• On May 19th, Resolution 02-2009 established Columbia's Play Commission with nine members;
• A draft action plan has been developed and will be refined by the Play Commission at their inaugural meeting later this month;
• Six local playspaces have been identified and evaluated--community members will be encouraged to add their comments online;
• City staff has reported that Columbia and its local school district together spend about $243,000 annually on 102 acres of parks and open spaces;
• Columbia's first annual "Play Day" is scheduled for Tuesday, September 29th.