Gay beats and urban planning

I was talking to a colleague yesterday who had just returned from a trip up to Queensland. The guy's brother is an urban planner and is about to embark on some research into park use. Evidently, as part of the research, he will also be investigating the use of parks as beats. It will be intersting to compare areas that are used as beats versus areas that are not, how they differ physically, and their popularity with other users within the community (families etc). I suspect there would be a strong historical element to the park use too.