Listening to the Mayor’s State of the City Address recently, I noticed two words that did not trip off Mayor Reed’s tongue: parks and trails. For years now I have watched City leadership bypass, reduce, and exempt parks, trails and public recreation both in terms of vision and budget dollars. This has to change.
Great cities have great parks and trails systems that are green engines which help address nearly every critical urban need from health to housing, to education and environmental justice and combating crime. Community members who devote time and energy to their parks and trails create safer communities, which help augment public safety costs by encouraging positive activity in their neighborhood and eyes on the street. The result is stronger community connections and empowered residents who look out for each other.
Los Angeles is a perfect example of a city leading the way. This summer I had the opportunity to visit and learn about LA’s impressive 50-park initiative.
This project was the result of a study that showed a significant disparity of access to park acreage and park funding – asking the question do minorities and low-income groups have disproportionate access to park resources? Instead of shelving the study and debunking the data, the City leadership moved forward. Mayor Villaraigosa and the Parks Department worked together to identify areas of potential improvement, establish partnerships and collaboration across multi-agency jurisdictions and community groups, non-profits and businesses to create an implementable plan. Today they have opened 13 new parks in under served neighborhoods. As a result, these areas have seen a reduction in crime. More importantly, all of this was done with budget shortfalls in funding for the Parks Department.
San Jose has a similar plan, called the San Jose Greenprint, a 20-Year Strategic Plan for parks, recreational facilities and programs. However unlike LA, we have not significantly moved forward many of the recommendations. Instead we dance around the social inequities in San Jose’s park system. Our primary funding of parkland comes from the Parkland Dedication Ordinance but those dollars only serve new residents and does not address inequities for current residents. What would it take for us to change this?
I would like to see city leadership move forward in accomplishing these three achievable goals:
• Create equity and balance through prioritizing and identifying park needs: heighten awareness of those neighborhoods unlikely to benefit from new development park fees; and acknowledge the economic disparities in our community in terms of access to open space and recreation.
• Make public park space in the new villages a priority. Develop design guidelines that reflect the very best of place making. Don’t use park funds for street improvements.
• Eliminate private recreation credits that perpetuate haves and have-nots. Make determinations by evaluating recreation access using environmental justice equity measures.
Helen Chapman is Vice President of the San Jose Parks Foundation
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