"Park Bench" show features Steve Buscemi interviewing Rosie Pere

There's something about sitting on a park bench that is conducive to starting a conversation. Maybe it's the wide open spaces. Perhaps it's the fresh air. Or maybe it's just the relaxing environment of a vibrant green park on a bright sunny day that helps people let their guard down and participate in an engaging dialogue.

Who knows exactly what it is.

But one person who recognizes this power in a park bench is the famous actor Steve Buscemi. "Park Bench" is the title of the sort-of-talk show he started and eventually sold to AOL for its "Original" video channel.

The idea for the series is simple. Buscemi gets involved in an intimate conversation with people from all walks of life while sitting on a park bench. Those subjects include not just fellow actors and politicians as expected, but also regular people from regular walks of life.

He got the idea for the series one day when he shot a sketch on a park bench for a show

A steer leaps over a picnic tabl

There are few instances throughout history when royals and regular citizens had much in common. But their interests did align when it came to getting out of the castle or house, sitting down at picnic tables under a wide open sky and enjoying a meal outdoors.

The popularity of the picnic table tradition is still going strong today.

All across the country go to any park early on Saturdays and Sundays and you will see families already camped out there, with the grill fired up and delicious smells of barbecue floating through the air. Some of those barbecue dishes are so mouth-watering, you could easily stick a maître de at the entrance of the park and charge people for a meal.

Eating outside is a cultural trend that seems to be growing rapidly. For example, every month there are nearly 20,000 searches on Google for terms related just to "picnic ideas." To keep pace with the popularity of dining outdoors, new picnic products keep coming on the market

Paley Park in NYC is one of the best "pocket parks" around - Photo by Aleksandr Zykov (Flickr

Take a vacant lot and fill it with park benches, a few shade trees and some bright flowers and what do you have? A pocket park!

What is a pocket park? Generally it's any park that is about a quarter of an acre in size. They are typically located in urban areas where open spaces are tight. Sometimes they are referred to as "vest pocket parks."

These small, mini-parks are a perfect solution for any budget-strapped parks and recreation department or to attract customers to a savvy local business.

The concept is catching on and when you think about it, it's a perfect way to expand any park system without a huge expense. Many cities already have plenty of vacant lots. The city of Baltimore, for example, reportedly has 12,000 vacant houses and 14,000 vacant lots. That's quite a bit of wasted space.

Perhaps there is a metro downtown area or local town with properties that are too small for a commercial

Message centers make a statement about your propert

It may seem old-fashioned, but message centers still serve a strong purpose today. We're talking about the covered outdoor bulletin boards you see at parks, homeowners' associations, schools, shopping centers, golf courses and generally any venue or location involving the public.

Message centers serve many functions. If they are placed strategically along a popular walking area where people pass by, they will get read.

That is why it is key to use a message center that does not look worn, splintered, filled with old postings, covered with dead bugs or looking as if it is about to topple over.

The product is a simple design. But an inferior message center can send so many negative messages about an entity whether it is a park, HOA, school, etc.

That message really has nothing to do with what is actually written and posted. It's the appearance of the message centers that says everything about an organization - in a subliminal way.

For

High Trestle Trail covering 25 miles is very popular with bicyclists. Photo by Iowa Natural Heritage Foundatio

Which of these items create more long-term jobs, bike racks or bridges? The answer seems obvious, doesn't it? Or does it?

According to a recent study by the National Recreation and Parks Association, you might be surprised the economic impact that can result from improvements in bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure.

Cities across the country are finding this out. Why add more roads and bridges? When you think about it, adding more highways also creates more ways for people to pass through a city.

But when you fix up an area by adding more bike racks, bike paths, pedestrian walkways, pedestrian malls, etc., you are actually creating a way for people to spend more time in a city. You create a destination.

The NRPA facts bear this out. They determined:

Bicycle Infrastructure Only projects generate 11.4 permanent jobs per $1 million spent. Pedestrian Infrastructure Only projects

Smoking shelters built to last

Smoking shelters offer a number of solutions for a business or organization with a large number of smokers. This solution can actually meet the needs of non-smokers and maintenance crews alike and make all groups happy. Which is not something easily accomplished in today's society.

First of all, it's inevitable that a certain percentage of employees or customers will enjoy smoking. Experts estimate about 20% of the adult population in the US are regular smokers.

The big question is, where are these people going to go? They certainly can't smoke in an office, store, bar or restaurant. If they are going to be forced outside in the wind, sleet, rain and snow, wouldn't it be nice if they had a protected place to go?

The answer?  A smoking shelter - a simple enclosed structure with a roof and glass or Plexiglas sides. Providing any hideaway from the elements will certainly be welcomed by smokers. (These structures can also be used for bus shelters).

Bus shelters

A buddy bench can help lonely kids make new friend

Many people have heard about a buddy bench. But what is the best way to pick the right bench for this old school networking tool? (Now a phenomenon that has caught on with hundreds of schools across the US.)

If you haven't already heard about the buddy bench, here's the back story. The idea originated in Germany and was first brought to the US by a young man named Christian Bucks.

Apparently the youngster's family once considered moving to Germany. While checking out brochures on elementary schools located there, Christian noticed a bench with strange lettering positioned strategically in a schoolyard. He was curious and inquired about its purpose. That's where he learned about the power of a buddy bench.

Buddy benc

The family didn't relocate after all. But young Christian convinced the principal at his school, Roundtown Elementary School in York, PA, to add this relationship-building program to the recess area. The local news media heard

Aluminum bleachers are frequently targeted by metal thieve

Because the price of metal has risen over the years, some individuals seem to think they can make a windfall by stealing a set of aluminum bleachers from local ball fields.

There's only one thing wrong with this scenario (as many of the crooks get to contemplate while in jail).

How do you sell them? A 10-row aluminum bleacher is not something you can pawn off in an alley like a watch or a bicycle.

The only place to try to sell the scrap from aluminum bleachers is at a metal recycling center. Well guess what? The police know that too.

The country has been plagued over the past few years with ambitious yet wisdom-deficient crooks who think it's clever to steal aluminum bleachers. They spend a tremendous amount of effort removing them, hours upon hours chopping them up, and then wasting more time hauling the scrap to a recycling center.

Someone stole 40 sections of aluminum bleachers from the Oregon State University softball field.

Demand is high for recycled plasti

When it comes to saving the planet and using products made with recyclables such as plastic picnic tables and plastic benches, there's good news and there's bad news.

First the good news. Chalk this one up to American ingenuity.  Manufacturers in the past decade have become very, very adept at creating high-quality products using old milk jugs, soda bottles, bottle caps, plastic bags, etc.

Some of those products included plastic picnic tables, plastic benches, pipes and even spun plastic fibers to make clothing.

Plastic picnic tables made from recycled plastic scrap

Here's one of the ironic, positive outcomes of all this. Mother Nature has provided us with incredible raw materials such as cotton, wood and iron to manufacture products, The American Manufacturer has developed processes that reuses plastic and creates products with some attributes that make them just as attractive as items made with natural materials.

Take recycled plastic benches for

How to correctly lock a bike to a bike rack - Source: Los Angeles Police Departmen

Providing an adequate number of bike parking racks in the right location is just one way that site managers can help prevent bike thefts and curb the growing trend in stolen bicycles across the country.

Bicycle theft is not a petty crime anymore. Today's bicycles can average from $300 to $400 in price and run as high as $5,000. That's a major temptation for crooks.

One major obstacle is that bicycle theft is generally not considered a top priority for most overworked police departments. For this and other reasons, many people don't even bother to report a theft when their bike is stolen.

But the numbers are adding up. According to FBI statistics, their data indicates that 250,000 bicycles are reported stolen every year.

However, experts suggest the number of bike thefts is actually FIVE times that amount. That would mean more than 1 MILLION bicycles are ripped off every year. That is a significant crime wave.

People-friendly space with plenty of outdoor park benches - Photo from Project for Public Space

When it comes to open spaces, just creating an area with a "build it and they will come" approach doesn't always work. According to experts, it takes a combination of the right people, plenty of outdoor park benches, strategically placed sidewalks, empty trash cans, secure bike racks and a whole lot more.

How many times have you walked through an open public area that was somehow just not right and not inviting? Or how many times have you visited a location and thought, gee, it would be nice if there was some way to hang out here but right now there is no comfortable way to do that?

According to researchers at Project for Public Spaces, there are actually quite a few factors that go into making an open space attractive and welcoming for the public to use. They created a checklist of items after studying thousands of public spaces, not just in the U.S., but around the world.

As you can imagine,

To add variety to the holidays, take the opportunity to take the family outside and visit local parks

The holidays are a time when families and people gather to exchange gifts, sit down together for a meal and just take time to be together.

But after all the presents are opened, the meals are consumed and everyone is caught up with everybody else, one of the best things you can do with family and friends is get outside!

Go for a walk together. Visit a park. Toss a football or kick a soccer ball. Ride your new bikes.

Mother Nature gives us the best gift of all - the great outdoors. Blue skies and green grass all wrapped up in a giant package of fresh air.

Sure, we know, it's the Age of Technology. But you can bring your new tablets, iPhones, and hand-held game consoles with you. Sit on a park bench or a picnic table and play, take photos or create videos.

The main thing is to just get out of the house. It breaks up the day, it gives people some elbow room and it lets children burn off all

Promote recycled products such as plastic picnic tables at schools, stores and parks to raise awareness

Offering plastic picnic tables and plastic benches made with recycled materials for use by the public can be one of the keys to promoting conservation in your town.  Rather than just talk about the benefits of recycling, you can walk the talk and show the real, tangible rewards of green living.

If you look on the web at various governmental programs to promote recycling, most of them focus on promoting the concept of recycling.

For example, with the Municipal Government Toolkit from the US Department of Environmental Protection, they outline several steps a town can follow to increase participation in a recycling program.

Every town in America is probably involved in some sort of recycling or sustainability effort - they would be foolish not to. A successful plastic recycling program can make a major dent in the expansion of landfills. Landfills are growing exponentially in this country.

Litter impacts property values. Add more commercial trash cans where necessary. Photo by WoodleyWonderworks - Flck

If you are a park or site facility manager who needs to justify adding more commercial trash cans or park trash cans, consider the loss in property values caused by unsightly piles of garbage.

Excessive litter is not only ugly; it will cost homeowners and businesses some major money in the long run.

According to a Keep America Beautiful study conducted in 2009, here are the indirect costs of litter:

93% of homeowners said a dirty neighborhood would lower the value of property in their eyes and would definitely influence their decision to buy. 40% of homeowners said litter would reduce a home's value to them by as much as 10% to 24%. Business development officials who are paid to bring businesses in to an area (which results in a larger tax base and more jobs) revealed that 35% of them felt litter would have a negative impact on a company locating in their area. When speaking

Commercial beach umbrellas are a key part of the guest experienc

In the old days in China, the wealth of a person was measured by how many people carried their umbrella. Some umbrellas reportedly required the muscle power of 24 people. That's rich. When it comes to a resort or park treating their guests like royalty, you also want to make sure you use high-quality commercial beach umbrellas.

The reasons? Liability, safety and durability. Numerous lawsuits have been filed by people who have been injured by flying umbrellas. In New York State, a woman was awarded $200,000 after a beach umbrella hit her in the head and she suffered a gash that required 13 stitches and was left with permanent nerve damage.

In 2010, two people were hurt in Naples, Fla., when they were hit by an improperly secured table umbrella during high winds. One woman was hit on the head and was left with a permanent injury with a herniated disc in her neck.

In Miami Beach, a beach umbrella from a vendor took off in the