The City Project releases the Policy Report Economic Stimulus, Green Space, and Equal Justice with diverse allies including Anahuak Youth Sports Association; Dr. Robert Bullard of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University; Robert Bracamontes of the Acjachemen Nation, Juaneno Tribe; California Center for Public Health Advocacy; Caminando con Fe/Walking with Faith; PolicyLink and SPARC (Social and Public Art Resource Center).
Even in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, people across the United States voted to tax themselves to provide billions of dollars to create green space in November 2008, when they also elected Barack Obama as the first black President of the United States in a wave of hope and change. In the first hundred days, the Obama administration has launched a $787 billion economic stimulus package to get the nation back to work, and additional megafunds have become available for green space from other federal, state and local sources.
The massive amounts of funding available for public infrastructure projects including green space offers an exceptional opportunity to promote economic vitality, environmental quality and equal justice for all, including low income communities and communities of color. These communities disproportionately suffer from disparities in access to green space, including parks and school fields, and related human health problems that stem in part from the lack of places for physical activity and recreation. People of color and low income communities must receive their fair share of public investments in infrastructure projects including green space. Solutions to many social problems – unemployment, environmental degradation, no place to play, little hope for disadvantaged youth, obesity, rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure for generations to come – must be tied to a vision for a new America that includes stimulus projects to improve the lives of all residents.
Green infrastructure projects including green space in parks and schools can help get the nation back to work building healthy, livable communities for all. Drawing on New Deal lessons, green infrastructure projects can provide multiple benefits including places for physical activity in parks and school fields; local green jobs for youth and small and disadvantaged business enterprises; Conservation Corps type programs to open job and career paths and to permanently improve national, state and local parks; public art in public parks; and public transit to parks and trails.
The California experience offers valuable lessons for hope and change. In 2008, the California legislature enacted legislative criteria to invest park funds in communities that are park poor and income poor. Park poor is defined as three acres or less of parks per thousand residents. Income poor is defined as $47,959 median household income or less. This legislation is a best practice example to establish standards to measure progress and equity, and to hold public officials accountable for infrastructure investments in multi-benefit green spaces, including federal, state, regional, county, and local park and school funds.
This Report details resources available for green space, the economic stimulus and other benefits provided by green space projects, and current disparities in access to green space and other safe places for physical activity for low income communities and communities of color. The Report describes the consequences of such disparities, the benefits that could be reaped if resources were allocated fairly, and laws and policies justifying change, including civil rights and environmental justice laws. Much of the Report is based specifically on the urban park movement in California, including information on best practices currently in place in the state, that can be applied across the country. The Report ends with recommendations for equitable investments in green space throughout California and the country.
Healthy Parks, Schools and Communities for All: Park Development and Community Revitalization
A diverse and growing alliance supports the distribution of park funds to achieve healthy, livable communties for all the people of California. We look forward to working with the California Department of Parks and Recreation to ensure that park funds reach the most park poor and economically poor communities through the proposed guidelines, the implementation of AB 31, and compliance with equal justice laws. This will fulfill the intent of the legislation and meet the needs of the voters who have passed park resource bonds for the past ten years.
Park funds should be allocated based on need not greed. Under a standard that targets communities with the greatest need first, park projects should receive top priority based on park poverty and economic poverty combined. Park poverty is less than three acres of parks per thousand residents, under the draft guidelines. Economic poverty is under $47,959 median household income. Prioritizing park poverty and economic poverty combined will help achieve equal justice in access to public resources for the most underserved communities, based on race, ethnicity, and income under civil rights and environmental justice laws. People of color and low income people throughout California disproportionately suffer from unfair disparities in access to park, school, and health resources, and suffer disproportionately from child obesity and other diseases related to the lack of places for physical activity and healthy eating. Investments in parks and schools in the most underserved communities are an important part of any green economic stimulus, public works and infrastructure program. Map 2001 shows the communities that are park poor and economically poor, and are disproportionately populated by people of color, in the hatched red hot spots. Using park poverty alone without economic poverty will not accomplish these important public policy goals of improving the quality of life, health, and environment for the most underserved communities.
The guidelines should provide as follows: (1) Projects in communities that are both park poor and economically poor should receive top priority over other projects. (2) Human health including obesity and diabetes levels should be a significant factor in determining “Community Challenges and Project Benefits,” “Challenges,” and “Youth at High Risk,” and projects addressing health should receive significant priority. (3) Projects should receive significant priority for joint use of park and school facilities. (4) The guidelines should explicitly call for compliance with state and federal civil rights laws guaranteeing equal access to public resources, not just the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). See Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its regulations, the President’s Order on Environmental Justice, California Government Code 11135 and its regulations, and the California statutory definition of environmental justice, Government Code 65040.12. (5) The guidelines should implement principles of equitable development: invest in people, invest in stronger communities, invest in the open, invest in justice.
We have an important opportunity to define and implement standards for equity to measure progress and hold officials accountable and to transform California into a more livable, democratic, and just place to live and raise children. We look forward to working with the Department of Parks and Recreation to meet these goals.
California Center for Public Health Advocacy • California Pan Ethnic Health Network (CPEHN) • César E. Chávez Institute, San Francisco State University • The City Project • Concerned Citizens of South Central Los Angeles • Mujeres de la Tierra • PolicyLink • Prevention Institute • SPARC (Social and Public Art Resource Center)
Healthy Parks, Schools and Communities Los Angeles City Council
The City Project's Executive Director and Counsel Robert García presented the Policy Report Healthy Parks, Schools, and Communities: Mapping Green Access and Equity for the Los Angeles Region to the full Los Angeles City Council on March 18, 2008. Council members respond in a conversation about a fair system of park finance and fees; regional grass roots support for parks and recreation; affordable housing; joint use of parks and schools; park, school, and health disparities based on race, ethnicity, and poverty; and improving the quality of life in every community. View YouTube videos of the City Council hearing.
Download the letter to the City Council summarizing our recommendations.
Policy Report Healthy Parks, Schools and Communities
The Policy Report Healthy Parks, Schools, and Communities: Mapping Green Access and Equity for the Los Angeles Region is a guide for creating healthy, livable communities for all. The Report provides a positive vision to:
Revitalize the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers
Create healthy parks and schools in every community
Improve health and reduce diabetes
Invest billions of dollars in infrastructure bonds
Promote economic vitality, local jobs, and affordable housing
Engage, educate, and empower communities.
Many parts of Los Angeles are park poor, and there are unfair park, school, and health disparities. Children of color disproportionately live in communities of concentrated poverty without places to play in parks and schools, with neither cars or transit to reach places for physical activity. These children disproportionately suffer from obesity and diabetes. Los Angeles has the chance to create healthy, livable communities for all.
The Policy Report provides GIS mapping, demographic and historical analyses, and policy and legal justifications for healthy parks, schools, and communities. The Report is a multimedia publication that is available in text only with no maps in a PDF file online, and with maps in hard copy and on compact disc below.
The Policy Report is available in hard copy in an abridged edition with the core maps and in unabridged edition with a complete set of maps, and on compact disc with a complete set of maps, for purchase online.
The following is a summary of some of the main concerns.
The City Project supports a collective vision for a web of parks, school fields, rivers, beaches, mountains, forests, and other natural public places to promote healthy, livable communities for all. We present ten principles for equal justice in planning healthy parks, schools, and communities.
The vision is inspired in part by the 1930 Olmsted plan for parks, playgrounds and beaches for the Los Angeles region. The Olmsted vision shows what should have been and what could be.
(Click on maps to enlarge. High quality maps are also available with the Report.)
In contrast to that vision is the reality of unfair park, school, and health disparities today. Children of color living in poverty with no access to a car have the worst access to parks, and to schools with five acres or more of playing fields. The shared use of parks and schools is the best use of land and tax dollars. But school fields tend to be located in disproportionately white and wealthy areas.
Obesity levels are intolerably high for children in every neighborhood--from 23 to 40%. Children of color suffer first and worst. Places and policies for physical activity can improve health and reduce obesity for all.
The revitalization of the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers should provide multiuse projects for parks, schools, clean water, and flood control, create jobs and affordable housing, and avoid gentrification.
The Heritage Parkscape will link the Los Angeles State Historic Park at the Cornfield, the Rio de Los Angeles State Park at Taylor Yard, El Pueblo de Los Angeles, the Los Angeles River, and over 100 other recreational, cultural, historical, and environmental sites. This is a best practice example for river revitalization.
