Higher Park Spending Is Associated With Less Relative Access For Underrepresented Residents

PURPOSE: Public parks are an important physical activity resource, but they may not be equally accessible to all residents. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the relationships between city investment in parks and the relative level of access to parks for People of Color (POC) and low-income (LI) residents. METHODS: Park data are from the 2023 Trust for Public Land (TPL) City Park Facts for the 100 most populous cities in the United States. Spending is reported as per capita combined public and private sector investments in parks, adjusted using the Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional Price Parities. Walkability reflects the percentage of residents living within a ten-minute walk of at least one park. The Race Walkability Disparity (RWD) score subtracts the walkability for white residents from walkability for POC. The Income Walkability Disparity (IWD) score subtracts walkability of high-income (HI) residents (>125% of city median) from the walkability for LI residents (<75% city median). A negative score reflects cities where LI or POC residents have less park access than their HI or White counterparts. The Amenities score (out of 100) reflects the availability of basketball hoops, dog parks, playgrounds, recreation and senior centers, restrooms, and splashpads. City population, percent of residents that are white and percent of residents that are Hispanic are taken from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. Two linear regressions with stepwise selection were run to determine the influence of Spending, Amenities, and population characteristics on RWD and IWD. RESULTS: Mean walkability was 71.3% for white, 73.4% for POC, 74.8% for LI and 71.1% for HI residents. Spending and Percent white were significant predictors in the RWD (b = -0.02, p < 0.01; b = 0.06, p = 0.03) and IWD (b = -0.02, p < 0.01; b = 0.08, p = 0.02) models. Combined, these two factors explained 11.5% of variance in both models. Amenities were also added to the RWD model, increasing R2 to 12.7% but was not included in the IWD model. CONCLUSIONS: People of color and LI residents have overall higher walkable park access than white and HI residents. Higher levels of park spending are associated with less relative park access for POC and LI residents. Additional research is needed to investigate the quality of parks that are accessible for these resident groups.