Virginia Beach is home to 208 city parks, including neighborhood parks, community parks, district parks, and other open spaces. Each park is unique and offers something for everyone, from wide open spaces to playgrounds, picnic shelters, and ball fields. Virginia Beach has no major league professional sports teams or spectator sports. There are some great gyms in Virginia Beach for those that are competitive gymnasts. Virginia Beach is host to a Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon each year on Labor Day weekend in conjunction with the American Music Festival. It is one of the largest Half Marathons in the world. The final 3 miles are on the boardwalk. The city of Virginia Beach is home to Virginia Beach City Public Schools, the second largest school system in Virginia and among the 50 largest school divisions in the United States (based on student enrollment). Virginia Beach City Public Schools currently serves 74,682 students, and includes 55 elementary schools, 15 middle schools, 11 high schools which include Landstown, Princess Anne, Cox, Tall wood, Salem, First Colonial, Kellam, Green Run, Kemps Ville, Bayside, and Ocean Lakes High Schools as well as a number of secondary/post-secondary specialty schools and centers such as the Advanced Technology Center (ATC), which provides excellent courses for those trying to gain a place in the technology field. Transportation within the city, as well as with other Seven Cities of Hampton Roads is served by a regional bus service,
Real estate, defense, and tourism are major sectors of the Virginia Beach economy, but the city has begun to run out of clear land available for new construction above the Green Line, an urban growth boundary dividing the urban northern and rural southern sections of the city. As such, while Virginia Beach does not have a redevelopment authority, local public and private groups have maintained a vested interest in real-estate redevelopment, resulting in a number of joint public-private projects such as commercial parks. Some of these, such as new hotels and convention centers built on public land along the Oceanfront and the New Urbanism Town Center development in the Pembroke area, have come under question due to the use of public funds and eminent domain in the interest of private economic development. In addition, some unique structures like The Dome, a geodesic dome and convention center dedicated to the career of astronaut Alan Shepard, were destroyed by the city [4] against the wishes of some citizens.