ABSTRACT
One more core function and set of services covered by National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration's (NASPAA's) standards, parks, recreation, and libraries, contribute to the public's health, education, and quality of life within cities. Services in these areas have all expanded and changed enormously recently, and all make a difference in the quality of any given city. Access to parks and recreation facilities varies widely across cities; the median for all cities is 8.8 percent of total acreage devoted to parkland. The budget and staffing will always be an issue in a department like parks and recreation. An element of parks in many larger cities are zoos and aquariums on city land, owned and operated either by the cities themselves, by nonprofit organizations typically set up to manage the facilities, or through public-private partnerships. The modern zoo has evolved enormously from the model of menageries of animals in small cages of even a few decades ago.
