A woman is gardening. She is attentively planting or tending to small, leafy greens in a raised garden bed. Around her, the bed is vibrant with marigold flowers and other greenery, which indicates a well-maintained community or home garden. The woman is wearing glasses and a green t-shirt with the words "HEALTHY LIFESTYLES LEARN. GROW. THRIVE." suggesting she is part of a program or initiative promoting health and growth through gardening. The setting appears to be a community space or park.

Parks and green spaces—playgrounds, pocket parks, outdoor recreation facilities, open spaces, trails, gardens, and green infrastructure—are crucial for community health and well-being, a fact made clear during the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • Parks protect health and promote mental wellbeing by providing people of all ages and abilities opportunities for physical activity, time in nature, social connection, and respite.

  • These vital resources also have climate benefits: they cool temperatures, cleanse air, filter stormwater, and replenish groundwater.

The image depicts a community gathering or public meeting taking place outdoors. A group of people, varying in age and likely representing a cross-section of the local community, are seated at tables and focused on a presentation. A person stands in the background under a tent, gesturing towards a display board that appears to contain maps or diagrams, possibly related to community planning or a local initiative. The scene is indicative of civic engagement, with community members coming together to discuss, learn about, or provide input on neighborhood developments or projects.

Even though there is broad consensus on the value of parks and green infrastructure, evidence shows that there are persistent inequities in access, availability, quality of facilities, and programming by race, place, and income.

  • African Americans, Latinos, and people who live in low-income, urban neighborhoods have less access to parks and green spaces than people who live in more affluent or predominantly white communities.

  • These inequities are the product of policies and practices like residential segregation, redlining, racially biased planning decisions, and exclusionary zoning, as well as problematic narratives and ways of working in the green space field that have often excluded or tokenized communities of color.

The image captures a dynamic moment at a skate park where a skateboarder is performing a trick, mid-air, above a rail. Another person on a skateboard is observing, poised at the edge of the frame, and a group of onlookers is gathered in the background, suggesting an event or a casual gathering of skateboard enthusiasts. The focus is on the airborne skateboarder, who is executing what appears to be a technical maneuver with a high level of skill. The scene is outdoors, in a setting dedicated to skateboarding, emphasizing the sport's community aspect and the use of public spaces for recreational activities.

Park equity is the fair and just distribution of parks and green spaces, such that all communities have access to these health-promoting resources.

  • Park equity requires closing gaps in access to parks and green spaces that disproportionately affect low-income communities and communities of color.

  • Park equity entails multiple strategies to ensure procedural, distributional, and structural equity.

 

Learn more about park equity in PI’s new paper, Changing the Landscape: People, Parks, and Power, and webinar.

 

Photo credits: Social Justice Learning Institute, Kounkuey Design Initiative​, The GRYD Foundation