When a Public Park Isn’t Really Public

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When a Public Park Isn’t Really Public
By Jena Brooker

For the first time in its history, a national ranking of urban green space in America is not only looking at the number and quality of parks within the country’s 100 largest cities, but also the equity of their distribution—shining a spotlight on the glaring gaps between access to nature along racial and socioeconomic lines.

Historically, the Trust for Public Land’s annual ParkScore index ranked cities based on four factors: acreage, investment, amenities, and access. But the 2021 index, released Thursday, includes equity components that compare, for example, park space per capita for mostly neighborhoods of color versus white neighborhoods, space per capita for low-income versus high-income neighborhoods, and how many low-income residents and people of color are within 10 minutes walking distance of a park.

“It’s been something that park systems and cities have asked us about repeatedly over the years,” Linda Hwang, managing director of strategy and innovation at the Trust for Public Land, told Grist. “We’re really proud to be able to include that category into the index in the rankings this year.”

The addition of equity addressed a disparity in the Trust for Public Land’s scoring process that allowed Minneapolis to rank No. 1 seven out of the nine times it had previously been included in the analysis, despite well-known inequality issues across the city’s parks. D.C.’s park network instead grabbed the top spot this year.

Public green space makes up around 15 percent of the city of Minneapolis—one of the highest ratios in the country. In 2020, 98 percent of Minneapolis residents lived within a 10-minute walk of a park. But the park system has historically benefited Minneapolis’ white residents far more than it has its communities of color.

In the mid 1900s, Minneapolis’ parks were at the center of redlining practices that prevented any nonwhite residents from living there, with the effects continuing today. Parks in low-income communities and communities of color in Minneapolis have historically received the least amount of funding. The local branch of the NAACP has also spoken out about discrimination that park employees of color have faced. Minneapolis’ parks have also been critiqued for having their own police force that patrols the 6,000 acres of park land, creating a sometimes-hostile environment for Black parkgoers. Within the city, Minneapolis police use force against Black residents seven times more than they do white residents.

It’s a gap in the scoring that is representative of a problem beyond just Minneapolis. Across the 100 cities analyzed for the new Trust for Public Land index, neighborhoods mostly composed of people of color have an average of 44 percent less access to parks per person than mostly white neighborhoods. Similarly, low-income residents have 42 percent less park space than high-income neighborhoods.

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Access to green space is correlated with positive health outcomes such as decreases in depression and anxiety, improved concentration, and reduced blood pressure. Parks aren’t just good for recreation or relaxation, either—they also provide flooding support and increase essential shade and cooling.

“They are part of our public health infrastructure,” said Hwang. “When you invest in your park system you are investing in so many other benefits that will come to people in the city related to climate and health and community.”

Source.

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Based on the headline, I thought this was going to be about municipally owned golf courses or community gardens that are gated and either require payment to enter in the former case or a membership of some kind in the latter case. Even ball fields, basketball courts and rec centers are exclusionary in a sense since they are only available to people who want to engage in certain activities. Dog parks are another example of a park use that is only of any value to dog owners. All of these specific park uses are valuable (except urban golf courses based on the amount of land that is needed imo), but sometimes parks are overly specialized into specific uses and don't have enough generic park space or lawns.

This article is more about equality in the distribution and quality of the parks. I can't help but chuckle at people complaining about having park police. I wish we had any sizeable park police force in Philly to address the ridiculous behavior you see in the parks around here.