July 2018 - Parks & Recreation - 41

Atlanta's Lindsay Street Park, developed through a grassroots partnership with the process of identifying improvements led by residents, is an example of a small park that
had a big impact on the surrounding community.

Based on field work in the Greenpoint area of Brooklyn, New York,
researchers Winifred Curran and
Trina Curran coined the term " just
green enough " to describe a strategy, led by the local community, to
achieve environmental remediation
without gentrification. This strategy
targeted clean-up of a severely contaminated creek in a working-class
neighborhood and development of
local-serving greenspace along the
creek while maintaining industrial
uses and jobs.
Regardless of terminology (and
I'd suggest " community-driven
green " as an alternative to " just
green enough " ), an approach to
achieving social equity through
local parks should begin with the
premise that low-income and minority residents have as much
equal right to access quality parks
and green spaces as more advantaged populations - perhaps even
more so, given the legacy of underinvestment and environmental
injustice that's all too common in
their neighborhoods. The approach
includes three key principles:
* First, residents must be engaged in
a robust, community-driven process to identify local priorities and
needs for parks and green spaces.
* Second, the resulting investment
should leverage the environmental, economic and social co-benefits parks can provide in meeting
community priorities. These might
include improving environmental
conditions, creating local jobs and
providing a place for community
gathering and recreation.
* Third, the park investment should
be coordinated with planning
strategies to address broader community needs, such as housing,
economic development and trans-

portation. The latter is particularly
important to address the potential
for gentrification through actions
to preserve and expand affordable
housing stock, relieve pressures on
low-income tenants and homeowners, and increase economic
opportunity for residents.
Park investments following
this model are smaller in scale
than civic green space projects,
like the High Line and 606 Trail,
and may occur on scattered sites
and/or in diverse forms, such as
neighborhood parks, community
gardens, greening of vacant lots
and green alleys.
Lindsay Street Park in Atlanta is
an example of a small (1.5 acre)
park that had a big impact on the
surrounding community. Opened
in 2015, it was the first park in the
English Avenue neighborhood,
which has a history of crime, vacancy, and unemployment. The
park was developed through a
grassroots partnership involving
The Conservation Fund, Park
Pride, the city of Atlanta and others, with the process of identifying
improvements led by residents.
The project uses green stormwater infrastructure to reduce flooding and improve water quality.
Co-benefits include reclamation
of vacant lots once filled with
weeds and trash, training and jobs
for local youths, and providing a
safe place for kids to play and the
community to gather.

Is Gentrification Inevitable?
As research director for the American
Planning Association (APA), I was
privileged to partner with NRPA on
the Great Urban Parks Campaign,
an initiative to explore the benefits
that green stormwater infrastructure

To maximize the benefits of park
investments for residents while
preventing gentrification, park
professionals should engage the
local community in identifying
needs and priorities.
in parks can bring to underserved
communities. APA's role included
preparing a series of briefing papers
(available through the NRPA and
APA websites) to help public officials,
planners and park professionals make
decisions and formulate local policies
around parks and green infrastructure. These briefing papers provide
more information on the connections
between parks, equity and green infrastructure, including references for
studies cited in this article.
Parks have a key role to play in social equity by ensuring that all people have access to the recreational
and other benefits they provide (one
of NRPA's three pillars). However, park improvements can lead to
gentrification and displacement of
residents by causing higher property
values and rising housing costs. This
process is not inevitable. To maximize the benefits of park investments for residents while preventing
gentrification, park professionals
should engage the local community in identifying needs and priorities, be aware of the effects larger
projects can have on surrounding
neighborhoods and work with planners to coordinate park investments
with strategies to address housing,
economic development and other
community needs.
David Rouse, FAICP, ASLA, is Managing Director of Research
and Advisory Services for the American Planning Association
(drouse@planning.org).

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July 2018 - Parks & Recreation

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