Pleasanton Parks and Recreation Master Plan

Page | 6 APPENDIX C projected a nation‐wide obesity rate of 42% by 2030 with California increasing from the current level of 27% to 47%. • A study by the California Center for Public Health Advocacy and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that 39.2 percent of 5th, 7th and 9th graders in Newark, California were obese. Hayward and San Leandro were tied for the childhood obesity rates at 42.7 percent. They were followed by Oakland at 42.3 percent. Union City ranks right below Newark with 38.4 percent. The lowest obesity rate in Alameda County was found in Pleasanton at 22.8 percent with the Alameda County at 34.5%. • Urban parks are on the rise to address open space and leisure walking needs within the compact built environment. Urban parks are commonly expressed in the form of paved plazas or courtyards adorned with public arts and water features, or linear urban trails with widened boulevard, city streetscapes and bike facilities. Sometimes, these urban parks are interspersed with community gardens to replace lost backyards in high‐density living. •A recent study published in the February 2012 issue of Pediatrics claimed that because of stricter licensing codes, playgrounds are now less physically challenging and more boring to children. "The emphasis on pre‐academics, concerns about safety, and limitation in budgets and space have created the perfect storm for young children to get less than the desired amount of physical education and exercise," Dr. Andrew Adesman, chief of developmental and behavioral pediatrics at the Steven and Alexandra Cohen Children's Medical Center of New York. As was noted elsewhere in the document, the City of Pleasanton maintains very creative and non‐traditional playgrounds. • There is an increasingly vocal group of play experts (including environmental psychologists, child development specialists, educators and landscape architects) who see creative play as serious work providing time for kids to learn, discover and be creative. They advocate the creation of a play environment open to manipulation. They see the addition of familiar swings and slides as only offering repetitive gross‐motor play activities often isolated from other activities. Instead, they recommend adventure playgrounds made up of “loose parts,” such as water, sand, balls and other manageable materials, for children to work, explore, and create and make‐believe. • Sports have become more specialized providing year‐round competitive opportunities to develop a child from recreation play to a scholarship‐earning level over a longer season at a younger age. Figures released by the Sporting Goods Association of America (SGMA) show that among youths and teens aged 7‐17, there has been an increase in skateboarding (75%), snowboarding (30.3%), tackle football (23.5%), tennis (9.5%), bowling (8.5%) and soccer (4.6%). However, participation has decreased in such sports as in‐line skating (‐60.4%), softball (‐36.1%), fresh water fishing (‐20.2%) skiing (‐ 28.5%), volleyball (‐8.7%), basketball (‐17.9%), golf (‐17.3%), bicycle riding (‐14.1%), mountain biking (‐13.8%) and baseball (‐12%). Besides a five‐fold growth in soccer over the past two decades, sport trends between 2007 and 2009 concluded that respectable gains in participation were found in court volleyball (up 17.2%), indoor soccer (up 11.8%), rugby (up 11.8%) and beach volleyball (up 7.5%). • Bocce Ball, a sport which has been around for centuries appears to be seeing a growth in participation rates. The United Stated Bocce Federation states that there are about 1 million players currently in the United States. The City offers a limited number of courts at Centennial Park/Pleasanton Senior Center For all ages aerobic exercising showed a 16.3% increase while yoga had the highest increase in participation up by 28% in 2010. NSGA Survey