Pleasanton Parks and Recreation Master Plan

Page | 4 APPENDIX C walkable cities in the United States receiving scores of 84.9 and 81.6 respectively. In 2008, California State Parks research found that 74% of Californians walk for fitness or pleasure. The Community‐wide telephone survey conduction for the Master Plan found that only 65% of Pleasanton residents walk for fitness or pleasure. • The 2000 National Survey on Recreation and the Environment (NSRE) estimated that walking would grow 23% and 34% in the next 10 and 20 years respectively. Blessed with the great outdoors, and a push in California to make communities more walkable, one can expect even a higher rate in California. Society and Economy • Unemployment will remain high in the foreseeable future. The Great Recession, technically ended in mid‐2009, but has many lingering effects. A high unemployment rate ranging from 7‐12% will likely stick around in California for at least another three to five years. • Nation‐wide the gap between those who “have” resources and “have‐not” is getting wider. Within the Pleasanton area the percentage of those living in poverty is relatively low, 4.2% as recorded from the recent census compared to 14.4% state‐wide. According to the Tri‐Valley Human Services Needs Assessment completed in 2011, Pleasanton recorded an 8.3% poverty rate with 2.7% of the population 50% below the poverty rate. The largest percentages of those living below the poverty rate were families headed by a single female. The median household income increased to $110,938 by 2013 with a median housing value of $602,118. • Crime continues to be a concern. Pleasanton crime statistics report an overall downward trend in crime based on data from 12 years with violent crime increasing and property crime decreasing. Based on this trend, the crime rate in Pleasanton for 2013 is expected to be lower than in 2010. The city violent crime rate for Pleasanton in 2010 was lower than the national violent crime rate average by 71.51% and the city property crime rate in Pleasanton was lower than the national property crime rate average by 35.15%. In 2010 the city violent crime rate in Pleasanton was lower than the violent crime rate in California by 73.9% and the city property crime rate in Pleasanton was lower than the property crime rate in California by 27.62%. Compared to other communities of similar population size, Pleasanton has a crime rate that is noticeably lower than the average and for comparably sized cities all across America, Pleasanton is actually safer than most. • Technology will continue to shape the way we live and do business. In the US, social networking now accounts for 11% of all time spent online. In December 2009, a total of 234 million people aged 13 and older used mobile devices. Twitter processed more than one billion tweets and averaged almost 40 million tweets per day. Over 25% internet page views occurred at one of the top social networking sites, up from 13.8% a year before. About 91% of 15‐year old students in our Country in 2003 had access to a computer at home, using them to do homework, play games, network, chat with friends and surf the internet. • Nationally, there is an emerging recognition that parks and recreation services play a significant role in improving the quality of life of the City, and that parks and open space are catalysts for both community building and economic development. A series of Parks Forum discussion papers recently released by There are now an estimated 10.5 million health club members in the US who over age 55. International Council of Active Aging