Why we need park equity

How we can legislate, fund, plan, and design our way to park justice.
Parks, trails, community gardens, and other urban green spaces serve as fundamental building blocks to create healthy, vibrant communities. In principle, public parks belong to everyone. In practice, access to parks and recreation areas is anything but equal.

Many communities with low household incomes and communities of color have few—or no—green spaces, and existing parks and recreation areas may be poorly maintained, understaffed, unwelcoming, and unsafe. 

Urban green spaces create myriad social, health, environmental, and economic benefits for communities. Access to neighborhood parks can bring communities together, support physical health, promote mental wellbeing, enhance child development, and prevent youth violence. (Read our new blog post for the details.) They can also provide environmental benefits like regulating air temperature, reducing air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, dampening noise, capturing stormwater runoff, and protecting habitats for urban wildlife.

Park-poor communities, on the other hand, are systematically limited in their access to these benefits.

Strategies to promote park equity
In our new blog post about park equity, we detail how communities can legislate, fund, plan, and design their way to a more equitable distribution of parks and green spaces. Strategies include:
  • Fund community-based organizations that work in and with park-poor communities to change the structural policies and systems that created park inequities in the first place. This funding would primarily need to come from private foundations.
     
  • Increase local, state, and federal funding allocations for green space and recreation services and enact policies that prioritize budget allocations to reverse inequities in the distribution of park space.
     
  • Secure commitments from sponsors of state and local conservation finance measures (e.g., bonds, assessments, etc.) to include line item funding to ameliorate park and recreation inequities.
     
  • Collaborate across sectors—from public health, planning and transportation agencies to environmental and social justice groups—to maximize the reach and effectiveness of park advocacy and planning efforts.

Click here to read all our recommended strategies.

Metro areas like Los Angeles County are exploring ways to close the park gap. In 2016, LA County voters overwhelmingly approved the Safe, Clean Neighborhood Parks and Beaches Measure, which is expected to generate $95 million per year—money that could make a real difference when it comes to addressing inequities in park funding and upkeep in LA’s park-poor communities.

Now—as the county moves toward implementing the measure—equity commitments that voters made at the ballot box need to become reality by ensuring that funding guidelines and processes steer investments toward communities that need parks the most. Learn more on twitter: #MeasureA #ParkEquityNow #RedToGreen

Photo of George Washington Carver Park in Willowbrook, an unincorporated area of LA County, by Manal J. Aboelata.

Need Our Help?

We’ve got more than 25 years of experience supporting community collaboratives, practitioners, funders, and jurisdictions. Check out our services and reach out.

get in touch