Military families face a unique set of challenges. Frequent moves. Stressful working conditions for the military spouse, or spouses. Long periods of separation when a spouse is on deployment outside of the United States.
It comes with the territory of a military family, but it doesn’t make it any easier. With each move comes the checklist of things to do and of criteria to evaluate if off-base housing is an option. Schools, affordable housing and crime rate are just a few ways in which neighborhoods or cities can be measured, but there’s another factor to consider when deciding where to live: the amount and quality of leisure and recreational activities available in a new area.
Whether in a new place or somewhere that’s been called home for decades, having quick access to recreational activities is important to any family. Kids like to play. Adults like the chance to work off some stress or at least to be diverted from the cares of life for a while.
But how do you go about measuring the quality of recreational and leisure activities in an unfamiliar area? You may have only a few days to make a decision about where to live for the subsequent few years.
To begin with, of course, it depends upon what is important —from a recreational standpoint — to you and your family? Have small children who live for their soccer league games? Baseball important to your youngsters. Need good biking trails and opportunities to indulge your cycling passion? Skiing your cup of tea?
It’s obvious that the ideal location for recreational and leisure activities is largely in the eye of the beholder. But there are certainly resources within easy reach to help you evaluate potential recreational opportunities in a community.
A quick call to the local chamber of commerce or local economic development agency, or a look at the organization’s Web site, will likely turn up numerous pieces of information. As quality of life has become a more important factor for expanding or relocating companies, communities have placed a greater emphasis on providing a variety of recreational and leisure activities for the people that live there.
Not a New Phenomenon
As far back as the 1980s and mid-1990s, researchers have been quantifying how quality of life impacts decisions people make on where to live or locate a business.
In 1995, a study by a researcher at Texas A&M University affirmed that quality of life, specifically including recreational and outdoor opportunities, was an important factor for businesses when deciding where to locate their business. The study, performed by A&M scientist John Crompton, a professor of recreation, parks and tourism sciences, concluded that the smaller the business, the more important quality of life and recreational activities were to their location decision.
While the military is not an expanding or relocating business, the recreational opportunities so important to small businesses are applicable to relocating military families.
In 1989, a survey of business executive by Cushman & Wakefield showed that quality of life, including opportunity for outdoor activities, was the third-most important factor, behind market access and skilled labor, in deciding where that company would locate it business.
Earlier in the decade, in 1987, the Joint Committee of the U.S. Congress reported that quality of life ranked higher than business-related factors in attracting new businesses to communities.
And as far back as 1980, the Valley National Bank in Arizona cited Arizona’s quality of life (and specifically recreational opportunities) as a reason for that state’s rapid economic growth.
That growth, by the way, has continued to this day. The bank surveyed 71 economists to find out why Arizona had been so successful at attracting new business. The economists responded that climate, job opportunities and open space/recreational activities were the reasons why companies would choose to relocate in Arizona.
Open Arms for Military Families
Why are these economic development studies relevant to you? They show that it’s perfectly acceptable for you to factor in recreation and leisure in your decision on where to live in your new community. If businesses, which are all about the bottom line, can make decisions on such “soft” issues as recreation and leisure activities, then certainly a family can and should.
For the past decade, one city has been the most-requested city as a last stop before retirement for members of the United States Navy: Jacksonville, Fla.
The Northeast Florida city is home to a large military presence, with three military installations and 50,000 either Active Duty military personnel or civilians employed at military facilities.
Jacksonville’s ample recreational and leisure activity options are part of the popularity with military personnel.
“I think recreation and quality of life has become more and more important with people in general today,” said Jerry Mallot, executive director of Cornerstone Regional Development Partnership, the economic development group for the Jacksonville metro area. “People want to go to places where there are things to do.
“People want to live where they can own a home, which they can do here,” he added. “They also have access to the ocean, to the river, the intercoastal waterway, golf and any number of outdoor opportunities.”
The city of Jacksonville has stepped to the plate to ensure that recreation remains a high priority for years to come. In recent years, the city has purchased 60,000 square miles of property within Jacksonville and set is aside for green space and parklands.
“We did that on purpose,” Mallot said. “We looked around and saw so many cities that outgrew their space for parks and recreational activities as their population grew. We decided while the cost of land was reasonable to go ahead and do this as part of the overall development plan. We’re trying to make Jacksonville a great place for years to come and not just for right now.”
Mallot noted that as cities undergo significant growth, the increasing price of land makes it nearly impossible for cities to go back and maintain a balance of park and recreational space commensurate with the population increase. The proactive planning by the Jacksonville government has avoided that pitfall.
“We have a significant number of local parks where parents can take small children if golfing isn’t your thing, although the golfing here is second to none,” Mallot said. “There’s also significant areas for baseball and soccer fields, enjoying the water, basically anything that can be done outdoors in Florida can be done here in Jacksonville.”
This attention to the outdoors hasn’t occurred by accident in Jacksonville.
“Each of the City Council members does a good job of making sure their district gets the resources it needs to maintain a good park system,” Mallot said. “It’s worked out very well for the city and for the people who like living here.”
Measuring Recreational Opportunities
So how does a person go about determining if a particular location offers the right amount of recreational and leisure activities. First and most obvious is to determine what’s most important to you, and what’s possible given the sometimes-limiting options available.
You may not be able to choose where you or your spouse is stationed, but within that metro area you may have options on where to live. For example, if water activities are important to your family, ask the economic development agency in a city you are looking at for a list of all water-based recreational opportunities.
Or if you or your spouse is an avid golfer, you can ask for a list of the courses in the area. For golf, and many other recreation activities, there is plenty of third-party data available to help you make your decision.
In May, Golf Digest published a report on the best golf-home communities around the country. The publication broke up its rankings by eight different regions, so that communities in the Midwest weren’t competing with those in Florida or the South. The result is a comprehensive look at some of the best places to buy golf homes in the United States.
If enjoying the great outdoors is more up your alley, National Geographic publishes an annual list of what it considers the best national parks. Of course, there’s no guarantee that the publication’s ranking methodologies match what’s important to you, but it’s a place to start.
A Piece of the Puzzle
Of course, recreational and leisure opportunities in a given location must be considered in the context of what is most important to you and your family. If you have school-aged children, then perhaps the reputation of the public school system will take top priority, especially if the school systems in surrounding communities are significantly worse.
But recreation and leisure activities should surely be somewhere on your criteria checklist as you evaluate potential communities as a place to call home.
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