Park Equity, Life Expectancy, and Power Building: South Los Angeles

As a consequence of living in one of denied opportunities the most park-poor areas of LA County, South LA residents have been for physical activity, denied opportunities for physical activity, respite, exposure to nature, respite, exposure and the other health benefits associated with parks and green space.1 to nature, and the These park deficits have been—and continue to be—produced other health. [...] acreage in areas of This is especially important in communities like South LA, where the LA County that face median life expectancy is 77 years, well below the upper bound for the park deficits and low county as a whole.2,3 About 15 miles away in the community of Beverly levels of tree canopy Hills, the life expectancy is about 90 years—13 years higher. [...] 4 has the potential to According to the research, if all of the census tracts in LA County with park deficits and low tree canopy levels had an increase in park considerably increase acreage up to the median for LA County tracts (about 54 acres within life expectancy in a two-mile radius of each census tract), LA County would likely see an those areas. [...] average gain of two-thirds of a month of life expectancy for each LA County resident living in those tracts.i,ii This translates into a gain of approximately 164,700 years in life expectancy across the population of all people living in census tracts in LA County with park deficits and low tree canopy levels.iii Targeted investments in park infrastructure would significantly benefit the health of. [...] By centering health equity in advocacy for park and green space investments, the residents of South LA can leverage their voice, agency, and power in decision-making to close health equity gaps and reverse the biased policies, procedures, practices, and norms that led to disinvestment and park deficits in the first place.