Essay 246 – Cities and towns to invest in building outdoor public spaces

GT Writing Task 2 / Essay Sample # 246

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Write about the following topic:

Some believe it is important for cities and towns to invest heavily in building large outdoor public spaces.

To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Write at least 250 words.

Model Answer:

It is often argued that investing substantially in erecting vast outdoor public spaces is of vital importance for municipal governments. This essay entirely agrees with this statement because these places create socio-economic and environmental value for the local community.

Vast public outdoor spaces exert a profound impact on the economic life of a community. The presence of a thriving business community paves the way for economic prosperity but can be highly competitive to attract health businesses. Well-designed streets, gardens, parks, and the availability of other public spaces are the silver bullet to attract businesses. Companies are quite often enticed by locations that provide well-designed, well-constructed, and well-managed public spaces, which in turn attract dedicated employees, customers, and domino effects, including socio-economic advantages, for local communities. Apart from that, an ideal public landscape also reaps a decisive advantage to the local economy in terms of triggering increased house prices, since it spurs house-buyers to pay to reside near green space.

Similarly, it has a positive impact on public health and the environment as well. Access to outdoor public spaces provides people with an opportunity to exercise, promoting healthy residents. Societies, where people lead a sedentary lifestyle, have an ever-increasing rate of obesity and chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes. That is to say that many chronic diseases are associated with a decrease in outdoor activity and a sedentary lifestyle. Authority should be cognizant of these issues and come up with a solution. However, one proposed remedy to that is the presence of easy access to well-managed and quality outdoor places that can help ameliorate both the physical and mental health of residents. For example, a growing body of study sheds light on the fact that large public space is an effective weapon in the battle against ill-health and chronic diseases in the community. Besides, polluted air can be ameliorated by the pure air blown out from the parks. Thus, ample public spaces can be advantageous to health as well as the environment.

In conclusion, it is logical to conclude that enormous public spaces can bring considerable benefits to local communities. Therefore, cities and towns should invest heavily in constructing outdoor public places.