And navigating how to get there
By Kimberly Burrowes and Matthew Eldridge
Parks are treasured community assets that offer significant benefits:
- They encourage physical activity and mental well-being.
- They facilitate community interaction and provide access to cultural events and programming.
- They help mitigate environmental challenges.
These benefits and others are felt beyond the physical boundaries of parks; surrounding neighborhoods often view their parks with pride.
Yet access to quality parks isn’t universal. People living close to parks may choose not to use them because of concerns about maintenance, safety, or relevant features and programming. Low-income neighborhoods and communities of color disproportionately lack access to quality park assets and, as a result, have less opportunity to enjoy the immense benefits parks offer.
To close this “park equity” gap, parks and recreation agency leaders and their partners in government and communities must work together. A new research report[1] suggests that examining park-funding decisions and ensuring investment strategies are grounded in equity are critical for a sustainable approach.
How Park Systems Are Funded
Park systems are most often funded through budget appropriations, dedicated tax and revenues, or fees. These funds are supplemented with resources from philanthropic organizations, state and federal grants, public-private partnerships, and a range of local sources. As with other infrastructure, parks rely on two types of funding: capital expenditure (acquiring and building new assets) and operations and maintenance (programming and protecting existing assets), each of which presents distinct challenges and opportunities. Sustainable funding for operations and maintenance is a perennial problem for many park systems (especially those in places with limited resources) because policymakers and planners typically see funding as the local jurisdiction’s responsibility. Capital funding, on the other hand, can and does come from multiple sources, including federal, state, and philanthropic grants.