PARKS AND THE FUTURE: NOW IS THE MOMENT TO TRANSFORM OUTDOOR EQUITY ACROSS THE NATION

Parks and the Future:

Now is the moment to transform outdoor equity across the nation

By Nette Compton Associate Vice President and Director of Strategy The Trust for Public Land

Reprinted with permisson. The global pandemic that has upended all of our lives has also exposed the many inequities in American society, hitting hardest in working-class communities and disproportionately affecting people of color. Just as there is unequal access to nutritious food, to health care, and even to diagnostic tests, so too is there unequal access to parks and green spaces. For the many people restricted by stay-at-home advisories, parks are providing a lifeline—but not everyone is able to grab hold.

From Charlotte, North Carolina, to San Francisco, local parks are so packed that some governments have had to close parking areas to discourage overcrowding, favoring those who can walk to those parks. Other cities have closed streets to vehicle traffic, augmenting parks by creating many miles of “open space” for cooped-up residents.

All of which underlines something that many of us know at a visceral level and that decades of research supports: parks, and nature in general, have the power to improve physical and mental health, nurture children, and bring communities together. Time spent in nature, even without exercise, can lower blood pressure, sharpen concentration, and boost mood. But as with access to food and health care, COVID-19 has also exposed fissures dividing communities with vibrant green spaces from those without.

Across the nation, more than 100 million people—including 28 million children—do not have a park within a 10-minute walk of home. In America’s 100 largest cities, 11.2 million people lack easy access. Making sure that everyone in those cities has close-to-home parks would entail adding 8,300 new parks to the 23,000 that now exist. But our analysis reveals that 1,500 parks strategically placed in dense cities like Los Angeles, Houston, and Miami could solve the issue of park equity for more than 5 million of the 11.2 million people without access.

At the same time, we also need to ensure that the parks we add provide the most benefit to the surrounding community. By building parks with community input, we create spaces that serve all residents’ wishes and make all feel welcome.

Park advocates and environmental justice activists say the pandemic—as awful and tragic as it is—could give society a deeper appreciation for the critical role that parks play and usher in a future that ensures that all communities have a fair share of green space.

Rue Mapp, founder and chief executive officer of Outdoor Afro, a national organization based in Oakland, looks to history for evidence of how seismic and painful events can accelerate positive change.

“In the same way there was a permanent shift in how we felt about intimacy after the AIDS crisis and air travel after 9/11, I’m hoping that after this pandemic, the prior-

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ity to have a connection to nature in our communities will emerge like never before,” Mapp said. “We’ve had a lot of park closures, but I’ve never seen as many people in my neighborhood walking—not just the dog walking—but whole families out walking together. This is an opportunity for us to rethink public lands and to get people out of the mind-set that nature is somewhere that you have to drive to.” Mapp and others caution that to the extent the pandemic eventually leads to a spate of new parks (whether due to federal stimulus money, recognition of their importance,

Parks and an Equitable Recovery

A Trust for Public Land Special Report

Below are exerpts pulled from the Trust for Public Land (TPL) special report Parks and an Equitable Recovery. The full report can be downloaded from their Website: (https://www.tpl.org/parks-andan-equitable-recovery-parkscore-report).

By Ronda Chapman, Lisa Foderaro, Linda Hwang, Bill Lee, Sadiya Muqueeth, Jessica Sargent, and Brendan Shane

We’ve measured who does and does not have access to the outdoors in America—and uncovered some major disparities. This past year has proved that parks are not just a nicety—they are a necessity. As Americans endured the health and economic challenges brought on by a global pandemic, the outdoors became a lifeline.

Local parks from Washington to Tennessee to Virginia saw dramatic upticks in usage from people seeking exercise, safe social connections, and the restorative effects of nature. Parks proved their mettle as essential public infrastructure, serving as venues for everything from meal distribution to COVID tests and vaccinations to gathering spaces for protest and mourning.

This year also exposed vast inequities across every facet of society, including our park systems. If you lived within walking distance of a park, you could safely get outside, gather with friends, exercise, and maintain your mental health. But if you were one of the 100 million Americans who don’t have a park close to home, you were vying for the same patch of outdoor space as many of your neighbors. And as the data around access to parks shows, that was too often the case for low-income neighborhoods and communities of color, the same communities that were hit hardest by the virus.

This five-part report examines the park equity gap in America and our evolving relationship to our parks and public land during this historic crisis. Visit the TPL Website to explore each section of the report (https://www.tpl. org/parks-and-an-equitable-recovery-parkscore-report).

Equity

The TPL analyzed data from 14,000 cities, towns, and census-designated places across the United States and found that Black, American Indian/Alaska Native, Hispanic or Latinx, Asian American, Pacific Islander, and multiracial populations - when they do have parks within a 10-minute walk - are likely to find small, crowded spaces - not the kind of parks that allow for social distancing or cooling shade. The analysis revealed that parks serving a majority people of color are, on average, half as large - 45 acres compared to 87 acres - and serve nearly five times more people as parks that serve a majority-white population. It also found that parks serving primarily low-income households are, on average, four times smaller - 25 acres versus 101 acres - than parks that serve a majority of highincome households.

Health

As part of the data gathering for the 2021 ParkScore® index, parks officials in 98 of the 100 largest cities reported that they had relied on parks to address many COVIDrelated needs. Specifically, 84 cities said they worked with local public health staffs; 57 cities repurposed park and recreation facilities for COVID-19 testing, PPE handouts, or vaccinations; 70 cities used parks for meal distribution, and 32 cities converted park and recreational facilities into alternate learning sites.

Climate

To make communities more resilient in the face of climate change, parks and green spaces need to be deployed deliberately in order to protect the most vulnerable. In cities, that often means bringing more parks to low-income communities and communities of color, in neighborhoods where street trees are few and parks and playgrounds are largely dominated by asphalt (which does little to provide protection from extreme heat or flooding).

The Economy

Despite the surge in all kinds of use of public spaces, park department budgets were decimated. TPL found that 63 park agencies in the 100 largest cities reported budget cuts due to COVID-19. Unlike state and national parks, city parks are especially dependent on earnings from athletic leagues and classes, as well as events like weddings, concerts, and festivals. Those activities were mostly canceled during the pandemic, leading to a sharp decline in revenues.

The Future

As we look forward to pandemic recovery, we must come together as a society to ensure that everyone is able to benefit from nearby parkland, not just the most privileged. Access to nature yields tremendous helath benefits - both physical and mentl - and also fosters social interaction, which research increasingly shows is key to along life.

or both), attention must be paid to other challenges in cities, namely affordable housing. Mapp pointed out that new parks, along with other factors, can sometimes contribute to gentrification, as happened in her former neighborhood in north Oakland in the 2000s.

“How can we plan cities better so that people of all economic backgrounds can have access to public land without being displaced?” she asked. “Access to parks and the housing crisis have to be part of the same conversation.” In New York, the nation’s epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, parks are proving a balm to essential workers looking for respite, to people mourning loved ones, and to families exhausted from weeks of confinement. Residents have mostly followed the rules of social distancing, and Mayor Bill de Blasio at the end of April committed to opening 100 miles of streets across the five boroughs to meet the demand for open space.

The Trust for Public Land analyzed potential locations for Open Streets in New York City, based on a lack of park access, closures of playgrounds and pools, and population density. The research revealed that most of the Open Streets should go in Central Brooklyn, Queens, and the Eastern Bronx, including neighborhoods like Morris Park and Parkchester in the Bronx; Elmhurst and Corona in Queens; and Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn.

Majora Carter, a former park activist who founded Sustainable South Bronx, said the hunger to be outside and immersed in nature in the midst of the pandemic was palpable. “People are coming out,” she said, referring to parks like Hunts Point Riverside Park, which she helped create 15 years ago. “People are just hanging out, sitting by the water, and enjoying the time.”

Carter, however, worries about the budget pressures already gripping major cities like New York and what they will mean for parks, especially if maintenance spending is targeted. Maintenance, she insisted, more than new infrastructure projects, should remain robust during an economic crisis.

“An unmaintained park, especially in a low-status area, is even worse than no park at all,” she said. “If parks are attracting the wrong kind of activity, it will set us back many years. But if a park is well maintained, people will appreciate them.”

For academics like Kathleen Wolf, who studies the benefits of nature for human health, the pandemic could have a lasting effect on both personal behavior and public policy. She believes people will recognize the value of nature for their well-being long after schools, workplaces, and businesses reopen.

But Wolf, a research social scientist at the University of Washington’s College of the Environment, also imagines a new call to action in the pandemic’s wake.

“I hope people realize the incredible importance of having adequate green space in our communities,” she said. “There are so many places where green space is seen as, ‘Oh, isn’t that pretty?’ But it’s profoundly important to our quality of life, and we need to intentionally work to assure that we have it, and have it in an equitable way.”

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Supporting Diversity Through Music

By Nette Compton Associate Vice President and Director of Strategy The Trust for Public Land

Throughout recent history there have been many initiatives to improve life and its opportunities in communities across the US. From the ‘City Beautiful’ movement, which ran from the 1890s to the 1920s, to various downtown activation and urban planning movements, towns and cities have always looked to strengthen their economies, provide better quality of life for their residents and open up new opportunities to rejuvenate the community.

For California’s Modesto, it is the Downtown Modesto Partnership, with a mission to create a vibrant community through activities and partnerships designed to improve the quantity and quality of experiences in downtown Modesto. Whichever urban regeneration program you look at, the Modesto Rotary Club will often be at its heart. Lynn Dickerson, CEO of the Gallo Center for the Arts and Dr. Phil Trompetter, both past presidents of Modesto Rotary (MoRo), explained how its recent project met the objectives of so many people.

As the Modesto Rotary Club prepared to celebrate its 100th year in 2020, it was looking for a grand centennial project. Throughout its 100 years, MoRo participated in many capital projects in the City such as installing playgrounds at a domestic violence shelter and youth center, constructing a pavilion at a downtown park, planting trees, or helping the City convert an old railroad spur into a bike trail. But for its centennial, MoRo wanted an ambitious downtown project that would help beautify and revitalize the area, and help improve the quality of life of its citizens.

One particularly beautiful part of Modesto that attracts a lot of foot and vehicle traffic is our Gallo Center for the Arts (GCA) in downtown Modesto that houses two performance venues, the 1248-seat Mary Stuart Rogers Theatre and the 440-seat Foster Family Theatre. The Center is open to families, schools, art lovers, musicians and people who simply want to experience the transformative magic of the performing arts. Since it opened in 2007, GCA has had a small, unused grassy area in front of its building that begged for some use, something that was on MoRo past president Lynn Dickerson’s mind when she attended the 2018 Rotary International Convention in Toronto.

It was there she saw a booth from Percussion Play, displaying outdoor musical instruments that are used in a variety of environments, from kindergartens, to libraries and care homes. The instruments offer wheel-chair access and are ingeniously designed to produce a beautiful harmony regardless of the number of people ‘playing’ each instrument. Whether it’s the Cajon Drum Circle, the Handpipes, Tutti Xylophone, or Emperor Chimes and Babel Drum, the musical instruments work together to produce a beautiful sound.

Lynn immediately saw the possibility of an outdoor ‘music garden,’ right in front of the GCA.

Lynn pitched the idea to Phil, who was to become the president of MoRo during the 100th year and had the responsibility of recommending a centennial project. Phil was already considering other projects, but the music garden idea grew on him as he considered the prospect of partnering with Lynn and our beloved GCA. Phil wanted the centennial project to be a place that was neutral ground where all are welcome. The location is a leveler for often separated people to show up together, where communication is the main activity; a public space that is accessible to all.

The music garden clearly had the potential for meeting the Rotary Club’s vision for its anniversary, the objective of the GCA; both came together at exactly the right time!

Lynn and Phil put the idea to the Rotary Club board of directors, and they agreed. The idea met Modesto’s downtown activation program’s objectives: creating spaces that attract people to achieve positive interaction, attracting a more diverse community to the Center and being the perfect project to mark the Rotary Club’s centennial year.

Local landscape architect, Chad Kennedy, kindly agreed to design the music garden pro bono, while Lynn and Phil started to fundraise the project, mostly through small donations. Some larger, very generous donors included the Porges Family Foundation, and the Modesto Rotary Club Foundations.

Thanks to the Modesto Rotary Club, on April 20th this year we had the grand opening of the new musical outdoor space with local residents and dignitaries including the County supervisors, City Mayor, and our state assemblyman! We had several musicians lead volunteers from the audience to playing the outdoor music instruments to “Let It Be,” creating a memorable moment for all in attendance.

Since then, our volunteer work-experience program called the Downtown Streets Team who help the homeless with their basic needs and access to employment, have used the Garden. A local musician was on the babel drum showing children how to use their fingertips to create sounds. At a drum circle, an incredible 12-year-old autistic and blind girl was going all out, producing the most incredibly beautiful sound. The instruments are attracting children from the poorest part of town who would never previously have seen performances or have free access to play these highly visual, impressive musical instruments. Above all, the architectural design makes them equally accessible to people in wheelchairs which makes it a truly inclusive experience.

Today the programs inside and outside the Gallo Center for the Arts continue to reflect the interests, diversity and history of the people that call the Central Valley their home. We now have the perfect landmark in the region for decades to come.