Park Equity, Life Expectancy, and Power Building Policy Brief

support community-based organizations to be active players in parks and land-use • Park inequities persist today, due to the legacy decision-making, and ensure transparency and of past policies and practices, and ongoing community oversight of park investments. [...] Systemic racism and long-standing imbalances in political and economic power, technical knowledge, and opportunities to affect the allocation of park resources have resulted in these communities disproportionately suffering the greatest health, social, and environmental consequences associated with lack of access to parks and green space. [...] Rather, they exemplify the systematic production of park and green inequities through historical and current-day policies, practices, and procedures, and compound health inequities by race and place.5 These inequities will persist until jurisdictions prioritize investments in parks and green space in the communities that need these resources the most. [...] • Staffing and services related to operations, maintenance, and programming • Perceived and actual safety in and around parks and green spaces • Policy and programmatic approaches to preventing and mitigating the risks associated with park and green space development Distributional Equity: Distributional equity is often the first thing people think about when they consider park and green space equ. [...] Trained, mobilized, and supported by capable base-building organizations, residents can unlock transformation and demand a new era of fairness and justice in all aspects of creating and maintaining urban parks and green space, first and foremost for Black and Latino communities.