Posted: March 26th, 2008

Councilmember Janice Hahn discusses The City Project’s Policy Report to pinpoint where to invest in parks and recreation in each community, and the need for reforming park funding including Quiimby fees. “Thank you to Robert García of The City Project for giving us the presentation and really giving us a good picture of where parks are in the City of Los Angeles.”

“It’s clear that Los Angeles is a park poor city with the majority of greenspace concentrated in too few corners of this city.”

“[The City Project’s] work in showing us all this is really letting us pinpoint where our own Department of Recreation and Parks can focus its resources on building more parks.”

“We now know where the parks are, where they aren’t, where we need to spend more resources.”

“How do we spend our dollars in a tough budget cycle. . . . If we’re going to shortchange people, and children, in this city, we are going to pay for it later. We know that if we don’t offer people a place to recreate, a place to play, a place to get involved in sports, then we are going to pay for it later. . . . We ought to pay for it on the front end by giving people more places to play, more places to recreate.”

“The same parts of the city that are underserved in so many ways, clearly are underserved in terms of something which many people take for granted, and that is open space to play and recreate.”

Download the letter to the City Council summarizing our recommendations.

Download the Policy Report Healthy Parks, Schools, and Communities: Mapping Green Access and Equity for the Los Angeles Region.