December 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 27

The following map shows the park need in Los Angeles County,
California. Source: Los Angeles Countywide Comprehensive
Parks and Recreation Needs Assessment (2016).

below the upper bound for the county as a whole. In
Beverly Hills, less than 15 miles away, life expectancy is
as high as 90 years - 13 years longer.
The research suggests that if all the census tracts in
L.A. County expanded park access up to the county median, it could add up to 164,700 years in lifeexpectancy gains for residents living in park-poor
tracts. Latino and Black community residents comprise
almost 72 percent of the gain (118,000 years).
Park inequities in Los Angeles and other cities across
the United States reflect the systematic production of
inequities through historical and current-day policies,
practices and procedures. Factors contributing to park
inequities have included racial segregation, biased planning decisions and exclusionary zoning, among others.
Present-day drivers of park inequities include shifting
responsibility for public services and reduced ability
of cities with limited tax bases and large lower income
populations to provide parks and recreation services.
Achieving park equity will require developing new
policies and practices and reforming existing ones to
prioritize investments in communities experiencing the
greatest park deficits. Other actions agencies could take
include: collecting data on park inequities and making it publicly available; building relationships with
community-based organizations that work in and with
marginalized communities to secure their input regarding park investments; evaluating agency policies and
initiatives to assess their impact to reverse or reinforce
park inequities and make corrections as necessary; and
including line-item funding in public finance measures
for parks (e.g., bonds, assessments, etc.) to explicitly
eliminate park deficits. They also should ensure transparency and community oversight of park investments.
Most importantly, park agencies should engage with and
listen to people living in low-income communities of color that have been historically excluded from park-related
decision making. The materials in the Advocacy Toolkit
for Park Equity, Life Expectancy, and Power Building
(tinyurl.com/yxta6lu8), which were developed based
on the research described above, are designed to support
community-based organizations, their members and others who are building power to secure equitable investments in park infrastructure in disinvested communities.
Note: This work was supported by the Urban Institute
through funds provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. It was guided by an advisory board that includes
the Center for Health Equity at the Los Angeles County

Department of Public Health and seven local base-building
organizations: Community Coalition, Esperanza Community Housing Corporation, Long Beach Forward, National
Health Foundation, Social Justice Learning Institute, Pacoima Beautiful and Promesa Boyle Heights.
Elva Yañez is the Director of Health Equity at the national
nonproﬁt Prevention Institute (elva@preventioninstitute.org).

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December 2020 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of December 2020 - Parks & Recreation