Leisure Activities
Secondary Data
According to County data, there are over 35 parks in Weld County and five public or private golf courses30. Efforts have been made in recent years to expand outdoor recreational activities, most notably is the creation of the Poudre River Trail. The Trail is a 19-mile long trail under construction that will extend from Island Grove Regional Park in Greeley, Colorado to the Weld/Larimer County line along the Cache la Poudre River. The Trail offers non-motorized recreational opportunities including: biking, walking, running, and rollerblading. Recent recreation initiatives include the construction of the Greeley Family FunPlex, located at 20th Street and 65th Avenue in Greeley and the Ice Haus, located at 900 8th Avenue, which will offer open skating, figure skating and hockey programs, and special events.
Outdoor recreation and parks projects funded in Weld County through grants from Great Outdoors Colorado include:
- Carbon Valley Pool Improvement/Carbon Valley Recreation District
- Ault West Park/Town of Ault
- Milavec Reservoir Park Improvements/Town of Frederick
- Town of Windsor Ball Field Enhancement/Town of Windsor
- Pierce East Side Park Project/Town of Pierce
- Thompson Rivers Ballfield Renovation/Thompson Rivers Park District
- UNC Xeric Demonstration Park/City of Greeley
- Eaton Baseball Field Project/Town of Eaton
- Butler Elementary School/Playground & Park/Town of Fort Lupton
- Riverside Park Ballfields/Town of Evans
- Weld County Missile Site Park Improvements/Weld County
- Poudre River Trail
- Windsor Poudre Trail Sections/Town of Windsor
- Riverside Park Trail/Town of Evans
- Greeley Open Space Implementation Plan/City of Greeley
- Weld County Open Space Comprehensive Plan/Weld County
Community Leisure Activities – Survey Data
Key informants and household respondents were asked to indicate whether shortage of recreational facilities, lack of outdoor recreational opportunities or lack of cultural activities were not an issue, a minor, moderate, or major issue. Respondent perceptions of the extent to which leisure issues were of concern appear in Table 20 and Figure 39.
Table 20. Percent of Key Informants and Household Respondents (HH) Indicating That Leisure Concerns Are an Issue for their Communitya
Leisure Issues |
Minor Issue |
Moderate Issue |
Major Issue |
Don’t know |
||||
Key Inform % |
HH % |
Key Inform % |
HH % |
Key Inform % |
HH % |
Key Inform % |
HH % |
|
Shortage of recreational facilities (swimming pools, tennis courts, basketball hoops, etc.) |
45.2 |
21.6 |
19.4 |
20.5 |
6.5 |
18.6 |
0.0 |
3.3 |
Lack of outdoor recreational opportunities (trails, parks, etc.) |
38.7 |
24.0 |
14.5 |
16.6 |
11.3 |
18.8 |
1.6 |
3.5 |
Lack of cultural activities (concerts, museums, etc.) |
29.0 |
24.8 |
17.7 |
21.8 |
17.7 |
19.1 |
1.6 |
5.2 |
a Throughout this report, the percent of respondents who reported concerns were ‘’not an issue” were excluded from the charts and tables. The complete set of frequencies can be found in the Appendix.
Figure 39. Percent of Key Informants (KI) and Household Respondents (HH) Reporting Leisure Concerns as a Moderate or Major Issue
The majority of key informants didn’t think that leisure activities were a major concern; however, the highest percent (35.4%) thought that the lack of cultural activities were a moderate or major concern (see Figure 39). For the household respondents, 40.9% indicated that lack of cultural activities were either a moderate or major issue, followed by a shortage of recreational facilities (39.1%).
Comments were made about the lack of community leisure activities included the following:
Leisure needs in rural areas
- Rural America does not have the luxury of the leisure activit[ies]
- In the country, there’s no parks on trails to go walking. We have to go into the town for any of the above activities.
- Not much for kids to do. Community finally built a swimming pool but its 2.50/day which is too much for income level of large part of population. New people can afford it w/ their $250,000 homes so there’s another separation of classes.
- Would be nice to have bike paths…they are working on Firestone trail Community recreational opportunities for specific groups
- Lack of activities for teenagers
- Lack of senior of facility
- Safe places for “Latch-key children” to “hangout”
- Parks where children can play and ride their bikes
- No park…kids always playing on road
- Wish more places allowed dogs…Dogs motivate me to use parks and exercise but dogs aren’t allowed anywhere
- Not enough activities for young teens
- Lack of appropriate and accessible recreation and activities for people with disabilities
- Senior citizens don’t have much opportunity in the community to do things
- Leisure area for teenagers
- No activities or events for youth to participate in
- I think that a lot of the classes offered for children are done during the week which is fine but it seems that the people that organize events forget that most parents work til 5:00. Activities need to be offered at a time for working parents
Other comments about the need for community events
- City growing West and South, without development of any major parks like Bittersweet
- Need more neighborhood activities
- Lack of communication regarding upcoming activities…dint know a majority of events have occurred until after its over.
- There used to be concerts at UNC, but for the last 2 years they have been eliminated. We really miss them.
- UNC abolished the Garden Theater concerts which was attended by hundred of people of all ages as well as families
- No swimming pools, recreation facility
- Funding to build more recreational facilities like a swimming pool for leisure/family use
Focus group participants remarked that public spaces were important for leisure activities. However, for many, recreational activities were limited or didn’t exist. “There is not much that families can do together. They can go to the park and that’s it.”
Community Leisure Needs by Subgroups
With the exception of Greeley and Windsor respondents, over 40% of respondents in all other Weld communities felt that a shortage of recreational facilitates was a moderate or major issue. Specifically, 71.5% of those in east-central Weld, 64% of those in north Weld, 54% of those in east Weld and 52% of those in Evans reported lack of recreational facilities as a moderate or major issue.
Respondents in rural Weld felt that a lack of outdoor recreational activities was also a moderate or major issue compared to Greeley/Evans residents (41% vs. 30.9%, respectively). Rural residents in north Weld, in south-west Weld, and in central-south Weld felt that lack of outdoor recreational opportunities were a moderate or major concern (57%, 47.7% and 46.4%, respectively). Respondents living west of 35th Avenue in Greeley were more likely to report that a lack of outdoor recreational activities were a moderate or major issue for their community than did residents living east of 35th Avenue (41% vs. 30.9%, respectively).
Residents in rural communities were more likely to report that a lack of cultural activities was a moderate or major issue than were those respondents living in the combined Greeley/Evans area (50.4% vs. 35.1%). Specific rural communities that had high percentages of respondent reporting a lack of cultural activities were located in centralsouth Weld (66.6%), west-central Weld (59.1%), south-west Weld (58.5%), and north Weld (50%). A high percent of respondents in Evans (47.6%) and south-east Weld (42.9%) also thought their communities lacked cultural opportunities.
Respondents living west of 35th Avenue were more likely to report that a lack of cultural activities was a moderate or major problem for Greeley than were respondents living east of 35th Avenue (50.4% vs. 35.1%, respectively).
Household Leisure Issues – Survey Data
Respondents were asked to indicate if not being able to afford recreational activities, not being able to afford cultural or entertainment activities and lack of access to outdoor recreational opportunities were not an issue, a minor issue, a moderate issue, or a major issue. The results are presented in Table 21 and Figure 40.
Table 21. Number and Percent of Household Respondents Indicating That Leisure Activities Are an Issue For Their Household
Leisure Activity Issues |
Not an Issue |
Minor Issue |
Moderate Issue |
Major Issue |
||||
n |
% |
n |
% |
n |
% |
n |
% |
|
Not being able to afford recreational activities |
189 |
51.8 |
79 |
21.6 |
50 |
13.7 |
47 |
12.9 |
Not being able to afford cultural or entertainment activities (music, etc.) |
185 |
50.7 |
81 |
22.2 |
51 |
14.0 |
48 |
13.2 |
Lack of access to outdoor recreation opportunities |
228 |
62.8 |
66 |
18.2 |
47 |
12.9 |
22 |
6.1 |
Slightly less than half of respondents indicated that affordability and access to leisure and recreational activities was an issue. Not being able to afford cultural or entertainment activities was reported as a moderate or major issue by 27.2% of respondents, followed by not being able to afford recreational activities (26.6%) and lack of access to outdoor recreation opportunities (19%).
Figure 40. Percent of Households Reporting Leisure Concerns as a Minor, Moderate or Major Issue
Household Leisure Issues by Subgroups
Examining which types of households were more likely to report difficulties with recreational and cultural activities revealed that lower income respondents were significantly more likely to report that not being able to afford recreational or cultural activities was a moderate or major issue (see Figure 41).
Difficulty affording recreation and cultural activities were also reported by younger respondents. Sixty-nine percent of respondents under age 34 and 52.7% of respondents between the ages of 35-54 reported that not being able to afford recreational activities was an issue. An even higher percentage of respondents under age 34 reported not being able to afford cultural or entertainment activities was an issue (73.2%). Similarly 51.5% of respondents aged 35-54 reported not being able to afford these activities was an issue. These same age groups also were more likely to report having a lack of access to outdoor recreational activities.
Figure 41. Percent of Households Reporting Not Being Able to Afford Cultural or Entertainment Activities a Minor, Moderate or Major Issue by Income
An examination of affordability of recreational and cultural activities by Greeley neighborhoods indicated that residents living east of 35th Avenue were more likely to report that not being able to afford recreational activities, and cultural and entertainment activities were moderate or major issues for them compared to residents living in the west Greeley area (34.1% vs. 11.9%, respectively and 41.1% vs. 11.9%, respectively).