We couldn’t agree more. Now, to facilitate this thinking and create policy in small, sometimes “backward” thinking cities throughout the state.

From The City Project (http://www.cityprojectca.org) :

A diverse and growing alliance supports the distribution of park funds to achieve healthy, livable communties for all the people of California. We look forward to working with the California Department of Parks and Recreation to ensure that park funds reach the most park poor and economically poor communities through the proposed guidelines, the implementation of AB 31, and compliance with equal justice laws. This will fulfill the intent of the legislation and meet the needs of the voters who have passed park resource bonds for the past ten years.

Park funds should be allocated based on need not greed. Under a standard that targets communities with the greatest need first, park projects should receive top priority based on park poverty and economic poverty combined. Park poverty is less than three acres of parks per thousand residents, under the draft guidelines. Economic poverty is under $47,959 median household income. Prioritizing park poverty and economic poverty combined will help achieve equal justice in access to public resources for the most underserved communities, based on race, ethnicity, and income under civil rights and environmental justice laws. People of color and low income people throughout California disproportionately suffer from unfair disparities in access to park, school, and health resources, and suffer disproportionately from child obesity and other diseases related to the lack of places for physical activity and healthy eating. Investments in parks and schools in the most underserved communities are an important part of any green economic stimulus, public works and infrastructure program. Map 2001 shows the communities that are park poor and economically poor, and are disproportionately populated by people of color, in the hatched red hot spots. Using park poverty alone without economic poverty will not accomplish these important public policy goals of improving the quality of life, health, and environment for the most underserved communities.

For the rest of this story and a link to an awesome map click on http://www.cityprojectca.org/blog/archives/1332.