Leisure Amenities Research Articles

Happiness in urban environments: what we know and don’t know yet

There is no consensus on what makes for a livable urban environment. This requires empirical assessment of the relationship between urban characteristics and the happiness of residents. We took stock of the available research findings, using the World Database of Happiness; 445 findings are considered, from 20 nations over the years 1975–2022. We considered 3 aspects of the urban environment, 1) objectively assessed characteristics, 2) subjective perception of urban characteristics and 3) satisfaction with urban characteristics. Urbanites tend to be happier in places characterized by the following objectively assessed features: a) access to local green/nature, b) access to cultural facilities and leisure amenities, c) access to healthcare, d) access to public goods such as access to sewage and water supply and e) access to public spaces. On the other hand, residents tend to be less happy the closer they live to f) shops, g) public transportation hubs and h) the city center. Subjectively perceived environmental characteristics that go with greater happiness are: i) amenities, j) public goods in vicinity k) playground and sport facilities, while l) perceived air pollution is negatively linked to happiness. Residents were found to be happier the more satisfied they are with m) connectivity and local transport, n) local recreation o) water quality and the, p) environment as-a-whole. Correlations with objectively assessed characteristics. with the urban environment are smaller than with subjective perceptions of the same and differ in direction for living close to q) shops and r) public transportation hubs. While objective closeness to these amenities relates negatively to happiness, subjectively perceived availability and satisfaction with these amenities relates positively to happiness. Most of the available findings are of a cross-sectional nature and do not inform us about cause and effect. This strand of research is still in its infancy. By lack of a sound evidence base, claims about livability of urban settings will remain a matter of subjective hunches and sales-talk.

Unfolding the entangled geosemiotics of technologically-mediated gated communities: Mountain View’s (2021) advertisement as a case study

Gated Communities (GCs), as residential enclaves in urban and suburban environments that offer exclusive housing and a multitude of onsite amenities, are burgeoning in many fast-growing Egyptian cities. In the past few years, several upscale Egyptian GCs have received unequivocal attention in high-profile TV advertisements and campaigns which package and technologically mediate social spaces overlaid with aesthetics of unique architectural character, distinctive leisure amenities, social exclusiveness, and prestigious lifestyles. Set against this backdrop, this paper takes up a postphenomenological-geosemiotic approach toward the examination of the affects of elitism that transpire in one upmarket urban enclave’s advertisement, namely Mountain View. Arguably, in the filmic narrative of the promoted social spaces, the technological mediation and intentionality of the camera shot scale modulate multi-sensory and multi-spatio-temporal relationships between viewers and the GC lifeworld/residents that are worthy of scrutiny. Key findings include how POV camera shots are employed and appropriated to mitigate (and mediate) the representation of transnational elite semiotic landscapes and the pertinent affective intersubjectivities of doing eliteness. The systematic analysis of MV’s semiotic aggregate unravels an affective aggregate that is, in essence, a concrete instantiation of Foucault’s notions of heterotopia and (post)-panopticism.

Crowd Control Strategies in Casinos in Lagos State, Nigeria

A casino is a recreation center, one of our society's leisure amenities. Therefore, a casino is a public location where guests can play various games of chance and gambling to entertain themselves. From previous reviews as shown in the study, casinos ought to have various crowd control strategies available to avert the risks associated with overcrowding. However, it depends on how effective the designers and other building professionals are willing to implement these strategies to make the building more conducive. The study examined crowd control strategies in recreational facilities in Lagos state, Nigeria, with a view to understanding why these facilities were created for maximum profit returns, over the safety of the users. To achieve this, a structured questionnaire was used for data collection, and a descriptive approach was used to analyze the data. The findings revealed that the grand mean value of 4.57 was more significant than the cut-off mean value of 3.5, indicating that measures implemented for crowd control in the casino were ineffective. The findings imply that the crowd control strategies implemented have less effect on casino users. Thus, inadequate provision of crowd control strategies puts users at potential risk in the casinos. Casinos should provide safety measures by design from the onset or as a precaution after establishment.

A street-point method to measure the spatiotemporal relationship between walkability and pedestrian flow

Walkability indicators are a pivotal method to evaluate the role of the built environment in peoples' decisions regarding active mobility, supporting the application of public measures that contribute to more sustainable and resilient regions. Currently, data used to evaluate associations between walkability indicators and travel behavior is obtained via traditional methods of data collection, like questionnaires, that are costly and hard to scale in large urban environments. Moreover, the spatial resolution of most indicators may not be sufficient to support granular local public interventions. To face these issues, we propose a novel walkability indicator that provides a score of walkability for every one-meter street point, based on street conditions and accessibility to points of interest calculated with a Cumulative-Gaussian impedance function. Resorting to Linear and Geospatial Weighted Regressions, we evaluate the associations between walkability features and pedestrian flow data retrieved from mobile phone communication signals for a week in March 2022. The relationship between walkability features and pedestrian flow is stronger during workdays, in which accessibility to education, food amenities and government services are the most important predictors. On the weekend, the features with more explanatory power are accessibility to crosswalks and leisure amenities. Accessibility to public transport, sidewalk width and slope seem to impact pedestrian decisions independently of the day type, although the impact is stronger on weekends. This study provides policy makers and urban planners with a practical tool to effectively support the evaluation of current street conditions and access areas that are underserved, as well as plan and gauge new local interventions, while objectively understanding their impacts on pedestrian mobility.

Identification of Local Accessibility Hubs and Leisure Amenities in Suburbanized Settlements: Case Study on the Suburban Zone of Prague

This paper focuses on the topological definition of the system of public spaces in suburbanized settlements. It identifies hubs with the best local accessibility within the system of public open spaces using the Space syntax method and analyses their leisure amenities. The topological investigation was performed on the example of the suburban zone of Prague, the immediate surroundings of which have been developing dramatically in recent decades. About 44 rapidly developing settlements in this area were included in the study and their system of public open spaces was analyzed using the Integration HH metric and local accessibility hubs (those with the highest Integration HH value) were identified. Subsequently, the placement of existing leisure amenities with respect to these accessibility hubs was evaluated. Only 32% of leisure amenities were located in the accessibility hubs, which indicates an unfulfilled potential of locally well-accessible places. At the same time, the placement of leisure amenities within new developments in areas difficult-to-access from other parts of the settlement poses a threat to the integration of the population from these new developments with those from other parts of the settlement. This paper offers solutions for preventing these issues, for identifying natural centers with the best accessibility, and proposes possible measures for mitigation of the identified problems.

Does Misery Impact Corporate Risk-Return Relationships?

The prior behavioral theory of the firm research documents that a firm’s external environment impacts the risk-return relationship, suggesting that drivers outside the firm are part of the risk-return puzzle. This study examines whether firms’ misery scores impact the return relationship. Using a sample of firm-year observations from 2002 to 2011, we investigate the relationship between the external environment related to misery and firms’ risk-return relationships by regressing five factors that proxy for firms’ external environments (e.g. misery levels) on risk and return. Our results suggest that both economic and non-economic external environmental factors impact firms’ risk-return relationship. Specifically, low unemployment rates and taxes are associated with higher levels of risk-taking, whereas greater access to leisure amenities decreases risk-taking. A firm’s return is negatively impacted by risk-taking associated with low unemployment and taxes and greater access to education and healthcare. However, a firm’s return is positively impacted by risk-taking associated with better air quality and lower property crime. The results suggest that a firm’s external environment impacts its performance. Therefore, future research may consider including location fixed effects to control for the unobservable external environmental factors that impact firm performance. Second, the results are of interest to practitioners as businesses can utilize the findings to develop internal programs that neutralize the external environment’s effects on firm performance.

An ethnographic research on the commercialization of the town of Baler, Aurora

This ethnographic research aimed to understand the effects of the presence of resorts and other leisure amenities in the town of Baler, Aurora. Participant observations were done to observe whether this “progress” produced positive or negative impacts. Interviews were also done, where questions about length of residency, source(s) of livelihood, and effects of these commercial establishments to their community were asked. A total of 20 respondents from two Barangays, Bacong and Castillo, participated in the interview. It was determined that positive and negative effects came together as the establishments rose, but the positives weight greater than the negatives. The results suggest the need for a longitudinal research to further understand if these effects are short-term or long-term and to find out if their other factors that contribute to these effects.

Do the Walkability and Urban Leisure Amenities of Neighborhoods Affect the Body Mass Index of Individuals? Based on a Case Study in Seoul, South Korea.

This study investigates the impact of neighborhood-built environments on obesity in interrelationship with socioeconomic status (SES)—controlling for dietary patterns and physical activities of residents—using structural equation modeling (SEM). A total of 577 samples who are between 19 and 64 years old and reside in Seoul are extracted from Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHNES), 2015. Neighborhood environments are represented as the two latent constructs—walkability and leisure amenities—composited with indicators such as density of intersections, density of mixed-use area, and the area of open spaces and are aggregated by jurisdictional unit in Seoul. We found that greater walkability in a neighborhood explained a lower body mass index (BMI) among residents, whereas more urban leisure amenities in a neighborhood explained a higher BMI. The finding suggests that a walking-friendly environment is more effective than active recreational amenities in inducing people to engage in daily physical activities to the level that reduces obesity rate. SES exerted a negative impact on BMI of a greater magnitude than the impact of either of the environmental living conditions, reinforcing the importance of general wealth and education level in leading to a healthy lifestyle. Our research contributes to growing evidence of a relationship between obesity and the built environment in the context of Asian countries where the prevalence of obesity is becoming a serious issue and requires immediate attention.

Beautiful city: Leisure amenities and urban growth

AbstractModern urban economic theory and policymakers are coming to see the provision of consumer‐leisure amenities as a way to attract population, especially the highly skilled and their employers. However, past studies have arguably only provided indirect evidence of the importance of leisure amenities for urban development. In this paper, we propose and validate the number of tourist trips and the number of crowdsourced picturesque locations as measures of consumer revealed preferences for local lifestyle amenities. Urban population growth in the 1990–2010 period was about 10% points (about one standard deviation) higher in a metro area that was perceived as twice more picturesque. This measure ties with low taxes as the most important predictor of urban population growth. “Beautiful cities” disproportionally attracted highly educated individuals and experienced faster housing price appreciation, especially in supply‐inelastic markets. In contrast to the generally declining trend of the American central city, neighborhoods that were close to central recreational districts have experienced economic growth, although at the cost of minority displacement.

Associations between physical health and depressive symptoms in Chinese older adults: Do neighborhood resources matter?

This is one of the first studies to examine the buffering effect of neighborhood resources, specifically leisure amenities and voluntary associations, on the relationship between poor physical health and depressive symptoms among older persons in China. Using data from the 2011 baseline survey of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, the analytical sample included 4715 older adults aged 60 and over nested in 446 neighborhoods. Two-level linear regression analyses were conducted in the urban (n=1225) and rural (n=3490) samples, respectively. We found that leisure amenities significantly reduced the effect of ADL limitations on depressive symptoms in urban older adults, and alleviated the effect of chronic conditions on depressive symptoms in rural older Chinese.

Retirement Communities: We Know What They Are … or Do We?

While retirement communities have existed for over fifty years, they have received relatively little analysis. A clear consensus on definition does not even exist. Based on a literature review, we offer a definition that includes several criteria related to the housing units, boundaries, services and/or leisure amenities, age restrictions, voluntary relocation, and shared space. We delineate the variety of types of retirement communities and address the current and future challenges facing retirement communities. Such a discussion is urgent, given the lack of current housing policy, when both the potential demand and pertinent financial challenges are greater than ever.

유럽 해항도시 항만재개발 롤모델로서 하펜시티 함부르크의 특성에 관한 연구

현재 독일 함부르크에서 공사 중에 있는 하펜시티는 수변공간 개발을 통한 도시재생 사업 중 모범적인 사례로 평가받고 있다. 본 논문에서는 하펜시티가 21세기형 도시를 지향하고 있음을 밝힐 것이다. 이는 도시인구의 교외이동으로 인한 도심의 공동화 현상을 치유하고 극복하는 방안으로서의 재도시화 현상과 맞물려 있다. 따라서 하펜시티 프로젝트의 현황과 특징을 살펴보기에 앞서 유럽의 해항도시에서 도시공동화를 불러일으킨 원인과 그 극복방안으로서의 재도시화 현상에 대해 먼저 살펴볼 것이다. 함부르크 하펜시티가 지향하는 새로운 도시성, 그리고 전통과 창조의 결합을 통한 문화적 가치들이 하펜시티 프로젝트에 어떻게 구체적으로 추구되고 있는지를 살펴보고 소개함으로써 북항 재개발 사업이 개선되어 올바른 방향으로 나아가길 바라기 때문이다 Hamburg is going with the HafenCity Project to create a new urban space for the city's bustling central district. HafenCity will add an additional 155 hectares to Hamburg's central urban area, increasing it's total area by some 40 percent. The qualities of the HafenCity are mainly marked through the location at the water, the river Elbe and the historically embossed milieu the Speicherstadt. A tightly mix of residential accommodation, offices, cultural and leisure amenities, retail facilities and restaurants manages diverse identities of quarters in a framework of an elaborate urban layout. This study is focusing on the purpose of the project goals, the task of the Hamburg authorities and GHS (Gesellschaft fur Hafen und Standortentwicklung) and an urban planning ideas competition (draft masterplan). Regarding of the new trend of the reurbanisation in Europe, the aim of this study is to find out, in which way HafenCity is trying to develope the new city district as a model for the European port city of the 21st century.

Understanding the Pursuit of Happiness in Ten Major Cities

The pursuit of happiness has a long history as a primary political end in Western political thought. Along with traditional economic indicators, policy makers are increasingly concerned with the subjective well-being of a society as a measure for its success. It is important to understand the nature of happiness and ask what can be done to improve it. This article builds upon existing literature that consistently identifies health, wealth, and social connectedness as key predictors of happiness. We find that the design and conditions of cities are associated with the happiness of residents in 10 urban areas. Cities that provide easy access to convenient public transportation and to cultural and leisure amenities promote happiness. Cities that are affordable and serve as good places to raise children also have happier residents. We suggest that such places foster the types of social connections that can improve happiness and ultimately enhance the attractiveness of living in the city.

Beautiful City: Leisure Amenities and Urban Growth

Modern urban economic theory and policymakers are coming to see the provision of consumer leisure amenities as a way to attract population, especially the highly skilled and their employers. However, past studies have only provided indirect evidence of the importance of leisure amenities for urban development. In this paper we propose and validate the number of leisure trips to MSAs as a measure of consumer revealed preferences for local leisure-oriented amenities. Population and employment growth in the 1990s was about 2 percent higher in an MSA with twice as many leisure visits: the third most important predictor of recent population growth in standardized terms. Moreover, this variable does a good job at forecasting out-of-sample growth for the period 2000-2006. Beautiful cities disproportionally attracted highly-educated individuals, and experienced faster housing price appreciation, especially in supply-inelastic markets. Investment by local government in new public recreational areas within an MSA was positively associated with higher subsequent city attractiveness. In contrast to the generally declining trends in the American city, neighborhoods that were close to central recreational districts have experienced economic growth, albeit at the cost of minority displacement.

Housing and care for older people: life in an English purpose-built retirement village

ABSTRACTRetirement communities are a relatively new long-term accommodation and care option in the United Kingdom. Policy makers and providers endorse the proposition that they are suited for the accommodation of both ‘fit’ and ‘frail’ older people, although comparatively little is known about what it is actually like to live in such communities, about whether they cater adequately for older people with a wide spectrum of needs and abilities, or if they provide acceptable solutions to older people's housing or care needs. This paper addresses these questions by reporting the findings of an independently funded three-year study of a new retirement village, Berryhill, in the north Midlands of England. The paper examines the background to this and similar developments, details how the study was carried out, and then examines what it was like to live at Berryhill. It focuses on the housing and care aspects, and explores the residents' motivations for moving to the village; their views about the accommodation; and their use of and satisfaction with the social and leisure amenities. The health and care needs of residents and the formal and informal supports are also featured. The conclusion discusses whether the village can truly be a ‘home for life’ in the face of increasing frailty, and whether or not these new models of accommodation and care can indeed cater for both ‘fit’ and ‘frail’ older people.

The Battle for Beachlands: Hayling Island and the Development of Coastal Leisure in Britain 1820–1960

William Padwick, the successful entrepreneur, once envisaged Hayling, .a flat rural island off the south coast of Hampshire, as a resort that would rival Brighton in popularity and amenities. In 1823 he successfully lobbied Parliament to build a bridge connecting the island to the mainland. 1 The bridge opened in 1824, and within two years, Padwick began building on the island's sandy southern shore. Norfolk Crescent, an imposing curved construction of sixteen luxury town homes similar to buildings in Brighton and Bath, was flanked by the Royal Hotel, a bathhouse for sea-bathing, and an ionic-columned library, all deemed essential leisure amenities for a fashionable spa resort in the nineteenth century.

Leisure: A Framework for Policy

Leisure is increasingly a central concern in both Eastern and Western societies. Often linked with initiatives related to human happiness, improving the livability of communities, protecting and conserving the environment, and supporting efforts aimed at improving the quality of life for all, the provision of leisure amenities, and programs and services has required greater attention of citizens, legislators, government agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and business and industry. It is evident that there is a need for the establishment of a policy framework to assist in the development and provision of such leisure resources and opportunities.

Spatial Convergence and Spillovers in American Invention

Endogenous growth theory places spatial knowledge spillovers at the center of national technological progress. Advances in spatial autocorrelation and regression analyses provide methods to assess the influence of these spillovers on the geographical distribution and growth of invention. This article investigates interstate inequality and convergence in per capita patenting in the United States in the period 1963–2003. We analyze both the complete forty years and trends in ten-year intervals. Moran's I reveals spatial dependence in patenting levels and growth, and LISA cluster maps identify regional groupings of leading and trailing states. Our regression results show that both regional effects and spatial spillovers influence convergence rates, which were low and steady in the thirty years before 1993. In the subsequent decade, patenting expansion concentrated in a few states, inequality increased, and divergence ensued. Western states, in general, and the Pacific Northwest, in particular, increasingly dominate patent growth. Rank order correlation analyses show that convergence before 1993 was driven by catch-up and not by leapfrogging. A final regression analysis shows that patent growth rates in the 1993–2003 interval were higher in more rural states and in those with high proportions of payrolls generated by high-technology manufacturing and producer services industries. States in the South significantly lagged. Our results support the hypothesis that creative skilled professionals seek to reside in states that offer both well-paying jobs in high-technology manufacturing and producer services sectors and easy access to rural outdoor recreation and leisure amenities.

Urban Consumption and Feelings of Attachment of Rotterdam's New Middle Class

Cities have increasingly developed into spaces for consumption. This paper explores the relationship between patterns of use of urban leisure amenities and feelings of attachment to the city. A survey among highly educated professionals and managers (the new middle class, working in the Dutch city of Rotterdam) was carried out in order to examine both their participation in the domain of urban leisure and urban residence, and their attachments to the city in general. The survey shows that among the new middle class subgroupings can be identified, based on their mobility with regard to leisure and their psychological attachments to the city. One of them is a group of young single urban households, who are not only frequent urban consumers, but who also feel strongly attached to the city as a whole. The findings suggest that in cities specific processes of symbolic consumption occur which facilitate some extent of psychological attachment and which appear to tie a subset of the new middle class to urban places, regardless of place of residence.

Large Protected Areas and Visitor Information Management in Germany

Tourism and recreation in the countryside, particularly in large protected areas, has become a major trend in Germany. However, despite the fact that the political as well as academic debate on the impacts of tourism on the environment has a long tradition in Germany, professional ‘visitor information management strategies’ are not implemented in all nature parks, national parks or biosphere reserves. Apart from the image that is held by the international academic community, Germany started late with modern communication policies in large protected areas with recreation and leisure amenities for general consumption. Learning from international best practice examples (e.g. from Great Britain, Ireland, USA), tourists in large protected areas are seen increasingly as ‘partners’ instead of ‘numbers to be managed’. Topical issues of discussion in this article are centred on the relationship between environmental protection policies and leisure and tourism consumption in Germany, focusing especially on the ‘nature parks’. Contemporary issues and problems concerning tourism demand and environmental protection will be presented and later discussed by the concept of visitor information management as a sustainable response. Furthermore, the dimensions of the ‘hardware’ and ‘software’ of visitor information management will be introduced.