There's a shortage of commercial charcoal grills at most parks today

It's summer time and time to get out to a park as visitors pick out their favorite picnic tables, lay out the tablecloths and fire up the commercial charcoal grills barbecue time. Well, at least the ones who get there early.

Most public park goers now face a major dilemma that puts a big damper on their weekend plans when it comes to cooking outdoors.

Because today America is encountering a major crisis when it comes to the number of commercial charcoal grills that are available.

What happened? Blame it on TV. Specifically the cooking shows (and even an entire channel devoted to cooking).

What did you expect? Spend an afternoon watching Bobby's Fray's show "Boy Meets Grill," "BBQ Pitmasters" or the "BBQ Crawl" and any red-blooded American with taste buds is going to want to drag out the charcoal and lighter fluid.

Permanent grills at parks get bigger to handle large groups who love to BB

Who is going to want plain old

 

Strategies for managing teens at mall

When it comes to shopping malls, teenagers will be teenagers. What's a mall manager to do?

Actually, there is quite a bit you can do from blaring weird music, installing more lighting and providing sturdy, vandal-resistant steel benches.

Let's start with the weird music. One of the great shopping center ironies in life is that a mall wants to attract teens to shop in the stores, eat in the food court and watch movies...and then it wants them to leave. Not an easy thing to accomplish. Especially when there isn't anything else in most towns to occupy a teen's time and energy.

So, to drive loitering teens away, some facilities and cities have taken extreme measures.

Take Washington, DC, for example. They tried to drive teens away from public areas with a "mosquito-sounding" device. Buzzed a shrill noise at a certain frequency that mainly only young people could hear. Problem was, many other people including very young kids or teens on their way to work

Research shows sitting on outdoor park benches for a few minutes can recharge worker

Is it possible that adding outdoor park benches near an office building can help workers become more productive? A bunch of scientists think so. And they have the research to back it up.

In a rather simple experiment, 150 college students were asked to participate in a Sustained Attention to Response Task. All they had to do was sit at a computer and watch numbers from 1 to 9 flash on the screen. They were instructed to hit a key on the keyboard for each number fired rapidly at them, unless the number was a 3.

Simple right? But not so easy. Clicking the keys furiously to keep up and then making sure not to hit the wrong key for one particular digit can become difficult and exhausting. (The whole idea behind the test is to monitor the ability to focus and pay attention).

Researchers wanted to test the effect of a "microbreak" on the students. For just 40 seconds, they gave the subjects a break from the

 

Commercial patio furniture at a resort hote

Your hotel, resort, multi-family complex or community you might not be able to create one of the top pool experiences in the world. But with the right commercial patio furniture, you can certainly make a splash.

So where are the best hotel pools in the USA? Using various sources, we've compiled our own list.

We must admit, there are quite a few opinions out there on which pools are the coolest. Best thing to do is conduct your own online search. Them check them out in person. Here are the ones we gathered that appeared to be mentioned the most by several different sources.

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Las Vegas Glenwood Hot Springs Lodge - Glenwood Springs, CO Hawks Cay - Duck Key, FL Delano South Beach - Miami Cheeca Lodge and Spa - Islamorada, Fla. Orlando World Center Marriott - Orlando Raleigh South Beach - Miami The Viceroy - Miami Grand Wailea Resort - Maui Sheraton Waikiki Hotel - Honolulu Harrah's Resort - Atlantic City Mondrian - Los

Scenic bike paths like this one in NYC can be an effective way to attract tourist

If a city or town is looking for a simple strategy for economic development, consider bike paths and trails. They're easy to create - you determine a scenic route in your town, find some bike racks for sale, arrange for rentals, create a map, and voila, you just created a tourist destination!

All across America, municipalities are pouring millions into building some feature in their town that will lure in tourists. Tourism dollars are great for any local economy. People visit, they drop money in restaurants, hotels, gas stations, stores and then they leave. So a town reaps the benefits of all those dollars without having to support all those people with schools, services, etc. They arrive, they spend, they go.

What a great way to generate revenue for a town. Local businesses benefit. Tax revenue grows. Area residents have more pride in their town.

But you don't necessarily have to spend millions to build the

Volunteers and outdoor trash receptacles can make a difference in fighting litte

It's a solution as simple as adding more outdoor trash receptacles that can turn a city around. Unfortunately, some people who live in metropolitan areas figure that litter and trash are just an inevitable part of big city living. But the mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, doesn't accept that notion. He's fighting litter and pledged to put 5,000 more outdoor trash cans on the streets in a major push to clean up the city.

Los Angeles, like most cities, has a trash problem. Some citizens believe it is okay to dump their burger wrappers and soft drinks on the ground. When that happens, litter escalates. Studies show that people, even those who use trash receptacles if they are handy, believe that trash on the ground is a green light for them to do the same.

Unlike many other civic challenges, this problem is an easy fix. For one, make sure there are an adequate number of outdoor trash receptacles available.

Park benches have a certain magnetic quality about the

There seems to be a certain charm about a park bench when it comes to bringing folks together. And when checking out park benches for sale, think about the type of bench, but also the people who will be sitting on those planks as well.

Park benches have a magnetic allure that is conducive to one person engaging with another - whether it's in a deep conversation with a friend or an first-time talk with a complete stranger.

This was very evident in a recent project conducted by Neighborhoods Inc., a non-profit organization in Northwest Indiana.

To help foster the interaction of people in their community, the organizers placed a park bench in front of 22 homes in a town of about 30,000 people. They included a sign that read, "Please have a seat."

Their efforts were effective. People now had a reason to stop and chat with the home owner or others in the area.

Neighbors, strollers, joggers, school children, people walking their dogs and

Model "green" bike lane in NYC - Source: NYC.go

May is National Bike Month and a great time to be a bicyclist. Municipals planners are starting to see the light when it comes to providing the infrastructure needed, such as more bike lanes, bike laws and outdoor bike racks, to support an ever-growing community of bike users.

In the past five years, there have been reportedly 3,000 bike -related projects funded with federal dollars across the US. That includes the creation of bike lanes and paths, addition of more outdoor bike racks and generally making it safer for people who prefer to pedal than drive.

"Almost everywhere in the United States there are better places to bike now than there were five or 10 years ago," said Tim Blumenthal, president of Bike Belong.

And why not? Look at the recent trends showing a surge in bike usage in the United States. According to the People for Bikes organization here are the stats:

Spending - Americans spend $81 billion on biking annually. That's a number

Fans sitting on aluminum bleachers that are IBC complian

If you are looking for bleachers for sale, one criterion you must add to your decision-making is to be sure you choose bleachers that meet International Building Code (IBC) standards.

Why? Bleachers are structures that will be used heavily by the public. They might be outdoor bleachers, subject to all types of weather and wear. Bleachers are not the same as church pews. They must be able to withstand lots of movement from ardent fans and spectators. People jump on them. Stomp their feet. Continually walk up and down the stairs. Spill things.  Run. Cheer. Many participants will be students and small children. Some will be older grandparents.

You get the picture, there's always quite a bit of activity taking place on aluminum bleachers.

It's no surprise then, that bleachers can also be dangerous. Some people have died as the result of bleacher falls. Many are injured every year. In fact, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission

Parks, picnic tables and wide open spaces are great for birthday partie

If you really want to host a unique (yet inexpensive) birthday party, consider a combination of picnic tables, a park and plenty of hard-to-hurt open spaces.

Parents know how it is nowadays when it comes to extravagant birthday parties. The old days of just inviting a handful of kids to come over for an hour has changed dramatically. Now the pressure is on to make a kids birthday party a major event, like the Macy's Day Parade.

People dish out big bucks for parties with activities such as bowling, laser tag, makeovers, gymnastics, trampolines, game rooms, etc. And then there is the standard party at Chuck E Cheese, where you can never, ever have enough quarters. How can any parent ever win in this escalating battle to put on the greatest birthday bash of the year?

For something different, less stressful and less expensive, why not take the birthday party to a park? All you need are a few picnic tables, a bag of toys,

Demand for commercial property is on the rise. This in turn increases the demand for related products such as appliances and commercial grade outdoor furniture

There's promising news in the real estate markets about the rising values of commercial property. And that promising development is positive for the US economy as well. It will mean an increase in construction, decrease in employment and the demand for more products, including commercial grade outdoor furniture.

The Urban Land Institute predicted in April that commercial real estate transaction volume will grow to $470 billion this year. That's $46 billion more than in 2014 and a healthy increase of 11%.

In fact, they predict this growth in commercial property will continue to trend upward to pass the $500 billion mark in 2016 and 2017, a 6% bump.

Warehouse rents and hotel revenue per room are forecast to be the leading property types with growth of nearly 4% for warehouse and 5.5% for hotels in the next few years. Experts predict

Indian Tunnel at Craters of the Moon National Park. One of the many free images from national parks that are available free to the public

This is National Park Week and even if you are unable to visit any of our national parks, there are a bunch of free goodies you can use to immerse yourself in the beauty of these truly natural treasures that we all own.

As you know, the whole idea behind a national month, week or day is not only to think about that entity during that period, but to raise awareness that will hopefully last over time (or until at least the next anniversary).

National Park Week is no different. But this year, there is a special emphasis on our national parks for two major reasons. First, the 100th Anniversary of the National Park Service is coming next year. That's huge. You know why? Because America was the FIRST country to actually designate a national park.

Amazing isn't it? You have old world Europe and ancient Asia yet it was the US which named the first national park.

Google Trekker now gives you a "street" view of park

Most people are familiar with Google Maps Street View and how it documents streets on the planet. But in commemoration of Earth Day, how about a "Park View" where you can take a virtual tour of parks and see everything from a waterfall to an outdoor park bench?

As we have seen so much in this digital age, it's doable. Google has launched a new program called "Google Trekker" where a person can literally walk through a park with their camera and record a 360-degree view of the surroundings.

For years, Google Street View has amazed the webisphere with its photographic documentation of nearly every street in the world. Every street. Go to Google Street View and type in your address. Chances are the Google car with the weird googley-eyed camera mounted on top has driven past your house and snapped a photo of it.

But most of the world is not accessible by car. Much of it is accessible by pathways. That's where Google Trekker comes in.

The

Lifestyle center with outdoor site furnishing

There's a new trend taking place in shopping center design which focuses on "lifestyle centers" - a mix of specialty stores, outdoor site furnishings and other uses. Ironically, all the items you find in a traditional small town.

That's the concept. Giant malls are designed to create a place of community, especially in suburbs, where all the streets look the same and there is no small town to visit.

And malls serve their purpose. You can find nearly anything you need in a mall, you don't have to worry whether it's snowing outside or 100 degrees and many create an exciting "wow" big space feel. A feeling you don't get, by the way, shopping from your computer.

But lifestyle centers take a different approach. Because in many suburbs people are also unable to experience that small town feel. A lifestyle center looks to recreate a "Main Street America" atmosphere with brownstone type facades and plenty of outdoor site furnishings such as benches

Rowdy fans require sturdy aluminum outdoor bleacher

Want to know why aluminum outdoor bleachers need to be heavy duty and high quality? Consider the "Bleacher Creatures" who inhabit the left corner of Yankee Stadium or bleacher "bums" for any team. These are tough crowds.

Now that Major League Baseball season 2015 has officially started those fanatical fans in the bleacher section will be at it again.

That's usually the group that is the loudest, the most dedicated and the weirdest dressed. That's where you will find the craziest costumes and the cleverest signs. Every team has them. It's not just baseball. Football certainly has its share. How about the Cleveland Brown's Dawg Pound? Green Bay Packers Cheeseheads? Dolfans in Florida? Ever see the "Black Hole" where the rowdiest members of Raider Nation in Oakland hang out? Some of those scary characters could be right out of a Mad Max movie.

And almost always, they sit in the section where the aluminum outdoors bleachers are located. These