When a new town is planned, it is more important to develop public parks and sport facilitates than shopping centers for people to spend their free time in. Agree or disagree?

In light of mounting issues with city life, urban planning has garnered a great deal of public interest. There have been heated debates concerning what facilities best service the needs of the residents when conceiving of a new urban area. A school of thought holds that recreational amenities play a greater role in a city than malls and supermarkets. I personally side with

this

view. There are many compelling reasons why parks and sporting venues are warranted when outlining a new town. The foremost benefit of these structures is that they promote physical activities, which is a boon to people’s health.

In addition

, parks increase the green space available in a city, thereby keeping the air fresh.

Last

but not least, the ornamental value of tastefully designed public parks and gardens as well as stadiums and other type of sporting infrastructures is a healthy boost for tourism and generates huge streams of revenue. While shopping centres are still ubiquitous in most towns and cities today, I am convinced that they have become unnecessary and even detrimental to the residents as well as the environment.

First

of all, brick-and-mortar shopping spaces have become more or less redundant. Few mall patrons actually shop there and the fact that most daily essentials, even groceries, can be purchased online today has dispensed with the need for supermarkets.

Second

, the construction and operation of shopping centres are a bane to the environment. The inactivity at malls makes them a huge waste of land, and the emissions of carbon footprint from running these places are a major contributor to pollution. In conclusion, I am of the opinion that public parks and sporting amenities are of greater importance than malls and shopping centres when it comes to developing a new town.