PARKS AND OPEN SPACES 121 



it, has observed with scorn that American playgrounds are designed 

 for administrators, not for children. 



If beauty is only this year's bandwagon, let us have a good and 

 virtuous time discussing it and then forget it. If beauty is to be next 

 year's justification for renewal developers and highway builders, let 

 us forget it even faster. But if we are serious, let us concentrate 

 generously and urgently upon the operation of city parks, in the full 

 understanding that this is expensive but worth it worth it not only 

 for the obvious advantages of good maintenance and loving manage- 

 ment, but because this is the only way we can tap new reservoirs 

 of talent and enthusiasm for city park and recreation work, and 

 because this is also the only foundation for creating parks worthy 

 of being maintained. 



Dr. SINGLETARY. My role here today is to discuss as precisely as 

 I can, the implication, indeed the specific assignments, of the present 

 antipoverty program and the role that this might play in what is the 

 general theme of our conference. 



As you know, the Economic Opportunity Act was passed by the 

 last Congress and the office that Mr. Shriver heads was established 

 and is now operating in what, from close view, I can tell you is some- 

 thing like high gear. The law itself has a number of titles and I will 

 not bore you with these, but I do want to say that there are several 

 programs within the framework of that bill that should be of inter- 

 est possibly the work experience program, certainly the community 

 action program, and most certainly two of the youth programs. 



The first of these programs is the one known as the Neighborhood 

 Youth Corps. The Corps is now in existence, having components 

 in many cities in the United States. The idea here is to provide 

 work experience for 16- through 22-year-olds in those areas of our 

 social and economic life where urgent public needs are either being 

 neglected or not fully met. 



The enrollees in certain of the Neighborhood Youth Corps projects 

 are now at work improving forest and parklands, landscaping areas 

 bordering on our public highways, and in some cities are working 

 on projects having to do with the grounds of public schools, settle- 

 ment houses, hospitals, etc. They are planting, seeding, and 

 clearing. 



In Buffalo, N.Y., for example, the Neighborhood Youth Corps 

 has a program working with and turning out landscape assistants who 

 can, I think, look forward very confidently to employment. 



