G R E E N S C H O O LYA R D Community Health and Parks In the United States, health experts believe that your zip code can help them better predict your health outcomes than your genetic code (tinyurl.com/y9l7tgdx). The social determinants of health - things like air and water quality, access to healthy foods and steady employment - follow trends at neighborhood levels (tinyurl.com/ y3xdjrd5). If you live close to a busy freeway with only a few trees to help collect particulate matter from the air, you and your neighbors are more likely to develop asthma and breathing issues than people across town who live in tree-lined suburbs. That's a significant problem in a country with a long history of segregation and discrimination. In fact, our history is precisely what has created these disparities in our communities. Redlining in the early to mid-20th century kept white and nonwhite residents segregated from each other, and the planning and development that occurred during this time created two separate realities in many major cities across the United States. Neighborhoods that were red- PHOTO COURTESY OF KRISTIN KOVALIK, THE TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND Old playground equipment like these swings and hanging bars will be replaced with new, nature-based play equipment. 52 Parks & Recreation | O C TO B E R 2 02 0 | PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N .O R G lined have fewer parks and green spaces, meaning residents of those neighborhoods have a harder time accessing the physical and mental health benefits of time in nature. These are the same neighborhoods where city planners and local governments put their factories, freeways and other pollutants that white neighborhoods were largely protected from (tinyurl.com/ y97wy9u8). These racist planning decisions mean that communities of color are disproportionately affected by harmful environmental factors across the United States and experience health disparities that