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overview | LA: starved for green | inequitable distribution of green | existing measures are ineffectual | environmental reasons for LANLT | opportunistic strategy
Graphs: The question of equity in the distribution of parks has become particularly acute in the city’s communities of color, where a shortage of park and recreation facilities is widely perceived as an environmental justice issue. Today in Los Angeles, for entire neighborhoods there are no accessible parks within walking distance, and existing large parks such as the approximately 4,000 acre Griffith Park (created in the late Nineteenth Century) must turn people away on weekends. Poorer, denser neighborhoods where there are concentrations of people of color and immigrants are at an even greater disadvantage than their white, more affluent, counterparts. The five poorest City Council districts in Los Angeles have only 17% of the total neighborhood park space, when based on an equal distribution of park space across districts they should have at least 33% (this is not even based on population density which would indicate that these districts have much farther below their fair share of neighborhood park space). The maps below show clearly the inequitable distribution of park resources in the City of Los Angeles for low-income communities and communities of color. Areas dominated by Latinos, African Americans and Asian-Pacific Islanders have dramatically lower levels of access to park resources than do other areas. The figures are most dramatic in areas of a single ethnic group. Census tracts with over a 75% white population had 31.8 park acres per 1,000 population and 192.9 acres per 1,000 children. This compares to census tracts with over a 75% African-American population which had 1.7 park acres per 1,000 population and 6.3 acres per 1,000 children. For census tracts dominated by over 75% Latinos, the statistic is worse with only 0.6 park acres per 1,000 population and 1.6 acres per 1,000 children. For Asian-Pacific Islander dominated census tracts (75% or higher) there are only 0.3 park acres per 1,000 population and 1.9 park acres per 1,000 children. Less than a third of the Latino population lives within a ¼ mile of a park. In 2002, almost 500,000 children or 73% of children living in Latino-dominated areas (50% or more) had no easy access to park facilities. As mentioned previously, the areas with the highest shares of Latino residents are in the worst situation in terms of park acres per 1,000 residents and children living within a ¼ mile from a park. Lower income households and areas with higher concentrations of poverty have much worse access to park resources than do higher income households and areas with little or no poverty. next page: existing measures are ineffectual
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