TY - JOUR
T1 - Parks and people
T2 - An environmental justice inquiry in Baltimore, Maryland
AU - Boone, Christopher
AU - Buckley, Geoffrey L.
AU - Grove, J. Morgan
AU - Sister, Chona
N1 - Funding Information:
Research for this article was supported through awards from the National Science Foundation Long-Term Ecological Research program (DEB 0423476), the National Science Foundation Human and Social Dynamics program (SBE–HSD 0624159), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service (06JV11242300039). We thank Audrey Kobayashi and the anonymous reviewers for their very helpful comments and encouragement.
PY - 2009/10
Y1 - 2009/10
N2 - This article examines the distribution of parks in Baltimore, Maryland, as an environmental justice issue. In addition to established methods for measuring distribution of and access to parks, we employ a novel park service area approach that uses Thiessen polygons and dasymetric reapportioning of census data to measure potential park congestion as an equity outcome measure. We find that a higher proportion of African Americans have access to parks within walking distance, defined as 400 meters or less, than whites, but whites have access to more acreage of parks within walking distance than blacks. A needs-based assessment shows that areas with the highest need have the best access to parks but also have access to less acreage of parks compared to low-need areas. Park service areas that are predominantly black have higher park congestion than areas that are predominantly white, although differences are less apparent at the city level than at the metropolitan level. Following Iris Young and others, we argue that conceptions of justice must move beyond distributive justice and address the social and institutional mechanisms that generate inequities. For Baltimore, we examine how segregation ordinances, racial covenants, improvement associations, the Home Owners Loan Corporation, and the Parks and Recreation Board created separate black spaces historically underserved with parks. These mechanisms ultimately fueled middle-class flight and suburbanization and black inheritance of much of Baltimore's space, including its parks. If justice demands just distribution justly achieved, the present-day pattern of parks in Baltimore should be interpreted as environmental injustice.
AB - This article examines the distribution of parks in Baltimore, Maryland, as an environmental justice issue. In addition to established methods for measuring distribution of and access to parks, we employ a novel park service area approach that uses Thiessen polygons and dasymetric reapportioning of census data to measure potential park congestion as an equity outcome measure. We find that a higher proportion of African Americans have access to parks within walking distance, defined as 400 meters or less, than whites, but whites have access to more acreage of parks within walking distance than blacks. A needs-based assessment shows that areas with the highest need have the best access to parks but also have access to less acreage of parks compared to low-need areas. Park service areas that are predominantly black have higher park congestion than areas that are predominantly white, although differences are less apparent at the city level than at the metropolitan level. Following Iris Young and others, we argue that conceptions of justice must move beyond distributive justice and address the social and institutional mechanisms that generate inequities. For Baltimore, we examine how segregation ordinances, racial covenants, improvement associations, the Home Owners Loan Corporation, and the Parks and Recreation Board created separate black spaces historically underserved with parks. These mechanisms ultimately fueled middle-class flight and suburbanization and black inheritance of much of Baltimore's space, including its parks. If justice demands just distribution justly achieved, the present-day pattern of parks in Baltimore should be interpreted as environmental injustice.
KW - Baltimore
KW - Environmental justice
KW - Parks
KW - Segregation
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U2 - 10.1080/00045600903102949
DO - 10.1080/00045600903102949
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:69949191335
SN - 0004-5608
VL - 99
SP - 767
EP - 787
JO - Annals of the Association of American Geographers
JF - Annals of the Association of American Geographers
IS - 4
ER -