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.
Inequities in park access across neighborhoods are the result of policies, laws, and practices that have segregated communities along racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic lines. And it’s no coincidence that communities that don’t have their fair share of parks and green spaces often have more than their fair share of polluting land uses and freeways. But because we didn’t arrive at this point by accident, we can organize, legislate, fund, and design our way out.
Learn more about our new national initiative, Building Momentum for Park and Green Space Equity.
Our Park Equity, Life Expectancy, and Power Building Advocacy Toolkit includes resources you can use to advocate for better park access in your community.
Media:
Why We Need Park Equity (April 25, 2019) Podcast.
A Key Victory in the Long Struggle for Park Equity in the LA Region (March 20, 2019) Blog.
Why We Need Park Equity (February 28, 2019) Blog.
*Photo credit: Steven Depolo