Parks and public spaces

Before making investments in this strategy, city and county leaders should ensure this strategy addresses local needs.

The Urban Institute has developed an indicator framework to help local leaders assess conditions related to upward mobility, identify barriers, and guide investments to address these challenges. These indicator frameworks can serve as a starting point for self-assessment, not as a comprehensive evaluation, and should be complemented by other forms of local knowledge.

The Urban Institute's Upward Mobility Framework identifies a set of key local conditions that shape communities’ ability to advance upward mobility and racial equity. Local leaders can use the Upward Mobility Framework to better understand the factors that improve upward mobility and prioritize areas of focus. Data reports for cities and counties can be created here.

Several indicators in the Upward Mobility Framework may be improved with investments in parks and public spaces. To measure these indicators and determine if investments in these interventions could help, examine the following:

• Environmental quality: Examine air quality. These data are available from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Air Quality Index.
• Safety from crime: Reported property crimes per 100,000 people and reported violent crimes per 100,000 people. These data are available from the Federal Bureau of Investigations’ Uniform Crime Reporting Program.
• Social capital: Number of membership associations per 10,000 people and the ratio of residents’ Facebook friends with higher socioeconomic status to their Facebook friends with lower socioeconomic status. These data are available from the Census Bureau’s County Business Patterns and Opportunity Insights’ Social Capital Atlas, respectively.
  

• Ensuring resident voices are reflected in development plans: When preparing to make new investments in parks and green spaces, leaders should engage heavily with community residents via listening sessions, co-creation sessions, and other public events. These activities help build community trust and buy-in, and they are necessary for ensuring that park design, features, and characteristics reflect the preferences of future users.
• Partner with community groups: Schools, community-based nonprofits, and other neighborhood groups can be helpful advocates for new investments in parks and are crucial in ensuring that engagement efforts reach the broadest set of neighborhood residents.
• Ensure current residents benefit from new investments: Because parks often enhance the value of surrounding land, leaders should be proactive in making investments and enacting policies that prevent displacement. Constructing new affordable housing, helping renters become homeowners, passing anti-displacement legislation, establishing value capture mechanisms, or establishing community land trusts can be helpful tactics, among others.