The Greater and Greener Conference, a leading international symposium for urban parks, takes place in San Francisco next month.

If you haven’t recently visited your neighborhood park or one of San Jose’s signature parks, you are among the majority of citizens. Our parks encounter much less traffic during the winter than the rest of the year.

City and county governments must operate with less money, while citizens still expect the same level of services. Two recent partnerships show great work can still be done in this new paradigm.

Summer is officially over and it seems like an appropriate time to reflect on the activities, challenges and accomplishments of the past few months, along with the people who really distinguished themselves by their work.

I have been to Chicago many times, but while visiting in August I was given a special tour of several parks, courtesy of Gia Biagi, chief of staff for the Chicago Park District. San Jose would do well to model its park system after the Windy City.

Once a park or trail is abandoned by families and children, it begins to become marginalized and eventually can become dangerous.

A coordinated effort to address some of St. James Park’s problems took place this summer. The process was a little convoluted and had some fits and starts, but the early results have been encouraging.

There has been considerable speculation about the possibility of putting a Levitt Pavilion in St. James Park. I am going to provide some basic information and dispel some myths about the project, which should then inform any and all discussions.

Members of San Jose’s Levitt Pavilion Exploratory Committee recently had the opportunity to visit two sites in Southern California: Pasadena’s Memorial Park and Los Angeles’ Macarthur Park.

Considering the national obesity rate and the health benefits of playing outdoors, parents have every incentive to encourage their children to get off the couch and under the sun.