Healthy Parks, Schools, and Communities Council President Eric Garcetti
Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti emphasizes that every place in the city can find space for new parks to empower youth, give them places to play, and keep them out of gangs and out of trouble. “Thank you for your continuing great work on park equity and bringing up issues that cut across race and class when looking at green space in our city.”
“CD 13 is the smallest district in the city, only 13 square miles. And so, people are saying ‘How do we create parks, we don’t have any land.’ And I believe, because we’ve shown almost tripling the number of parks in less than seven years in one council district that happens to be the smallest, that there’s no place in this city that we can’t find the space. It’s the political will, it’s the social will, it’s the community will to actually do this.”
“A skate park right along the L.A. river where we had kids six years who said, “If you need to put nature by the river do it, but just give us a skate park, for God’s sake.” And when we were able to do it, they designed it, they built it, they staff it now and I’ve got to tell you what it did to transform the Elysian Valley and to empower those kids in that neighborhood, keep them away from gangs, keep them out of trouble, and actually have a place to play. It is transformative.”
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.
