Put it in Park

austin’s complex park management and park differences shape neighborhoods in the city

There are a total of 489 parks in Austin, putting nearly 70 percent of residents within a 10 minute walking distance to one. Ranging in size, accessibility, and amenities, each park in Austin has something special to offer. Parks are necessary to maintain green space and quality of life in cities like Austin, but with such a large amount of parks to oversee, some become neglected. Managing all of Austin’s parks can be a feat, but it’s important to routinely take care of them. Ricardo Soliz is the Division Manager at the

Austin Parks and Recreation department and oversees a portion of Austin parks and maintenance.

“The parks with the most amenities would generally be our metropolitan parks,” Soliz said. “The developed metro parks include Mary Moore Seawright, Walnut Creek, Zilker Park, Emma Long to name a few. Zilker Park has many more visitors because of Barton Springs pool, the botanical center, and Nature Center. Emma Long has a lot of visitors because of their camping, and boat launching ramp. Walnut Creek has sports fields that are heavily used.”

Using over 350 acres, Zilker Park makes up a significant part of Austin’s identity, connecting downtown, the river, and southern neighborhoods smoothly. It’s one of the highest priority parks at Austin Parks and Recreation, often requiring the most maintenance and attention.

“Each park has a level of services tied to the type of amenities and number of users in the park,” Soliz said. “The Parks Department has maintenance levels from 1 to 4 with level 1 requiring more servicing and 4 with less frequent servicing.”

The metropolitan parks are higher on the scale, often requiring more maintenance. However, some parks in Austin don’t receive all of the attention they should be getting.

According to ParkScore, historically Asian, Hispanic, and mixed neighborhoods tend to have much less park space per person, while historically White and Black neighborhoods tend to have much more park space per person. 30 percent of Austin’s residents live more than 10 minutes walking distance from their closest park, which doesn’t disproportionately affect anyone based on income, gender, or race. However, parks in areas with more crime and gang violence tend to be less maintained than those in higher income neighborhoods.

Brownie Neighborhood Park is undergoing this phenomenon as it sits fenced off, waiting to be remodeled. It serves a lower income neighborhood and is one of the only nearby parks, with an elementary school playground to the south and a high priority park deficient area to the north. In recent news, car break-ins and theft have become increasingly common in more remote parks around Austin, such as Covert Park at Mount Bonnell, parks off of Highway 360, and occasionally Zilker park. While this isn’t something that the Austin Parks and Recreation Department can solve, visitors are encouraged to take items with them and not leave any visible in the car.

Shahreen Abedin is a resident of Circle C Ranch, one of Austin’s largest neighborhoods with a Homeowners Association [HOA], and has been taking her children to nearby parks for years. The privately operated and maintained parks in Circle C differ from those operated by the Austin Parks and Recreation Department, often being specifically tailored into the neighborhood.

“I think the [parks] without HOAs involved tend to be more cookiecutter and a bit more industrial in design

Amenities in Austin

because they were built using public funds to accommodate,” Abedin said. “The ones with HOAs tend to feel more intimate, and more reflective of the immediate surrounding area.”

The benefits of unique parks and good maintenance run into an issue when driving to them is encouraged. The nearest park to Abedin’s house is more than a 20 minute walk. It has adequate parking spaces and long, winding trails— but no safe way to cross the 4 lane street at the park’s only major access point. “I would not say that parks are a thing of the past,” Abedin said. “I wish I could go to them more with my kids these days, but they are too old for them. However, parks are vital spaces that my family relied on for years throughout our children’s youth… Families need parks to provide a safe, clean, open space for kids to run around and get all their sillies out. If there was another park, I do think Circle C would expand to use that additional space. I just hope that the park would be distinctively different from the other parks, so we benefit from a variety of choices.”

The major difference, however, is in the funding. HOA parks are funded by the residents of the neighborhood and public parks are funded by the government.

“Typically, public parks have more funding available to them versus private ones,” Ricardo Soliz said. “Private park funding can go away at any time depending on who is managing them. A homeowners association can lose their funding at any time leaving the private park without any maintenance or replacement funding.”

Austin Parks and Recreation also uses government funding for developing new parks. The planned or incompleted parks are located specifically so the department can provide access to parks to as many people as possible.

“The City’s/Parks Department goal is to have a park within a 10-minute walk or a half mile from every residence within the city limits,” Soliz said. “Parks that are not accessible by foot or bike are those parcels that were purchased to be developed in the future. Many times, the Parks Department gets funding for acquiring land but no funding is identified or available to develop the park yet.”

Jaiden Choksi is a freshman at LASA and visits Reed park to walk his dog. According to Choksi, only certain parts of the park are well taken care of.

“There are lots of other people [at Reed park] as it’s a popular park for both younger kids and dogs,” Choksi said. “The main playground and the benches are clean, but the only restroom is a porta-potty. The playground is nice and the pool is okay, but a bit dirty. The field is overgrown on the edges but nice in the middle.”