“Today… designers of a new generation of American public spaces draw inspiration from Olmsted and Vaux”, but they also “respond to new urban conditions. While the physical labor and industrial pollution of the 19th century called for passive parks where people could rest and breathe fresh air (Olmsted thought of parks as the ‘lungs of the city’), landscape architect Ken Smith suggests that ‘today a big need is really physical activity—getting people to walk and move and run and bicycle.’”

Featuring an article on five large, next generation, public parks, naming the designers behind them, /Good Magazine/ debuted just several weeks ago. Foregoing a traditional advertising push, Good targets $1 million in charter subscriptions and plans to donate it all to emerging and innovative charities.

“Traditionally, the best way to get a bunch of new subscribers is to send millions of pieces of unsolicited mail—junk mail—to people who might have some interest. We don't like junk mail, and we don't like the thought of spending millions of dollars on it. So we came up with the idea of giving away all subscription fees and allowing subscribers to choose which organization they would like to support.”

That's an innovative model. Visit the link and to read more, look under “subscribe”.