City Know-hows
Target audience
Those responsible for managing green public space and parks, city government, directors of parks and recreation and green space advocates.
The problem
Current policy prioritizes time to walk to the park as a measure of access. We sought to investigate a more holistic model of park access that would promote equity.
What we did and why
We designed a survey tool based on a comprehensive theory of access. We then performed door to door administration of the survey in two historically disinvested communities bordering a large park in Baltimore City, Maryland USA, to determine factors associated with self-reported park use.
Our study’s contribution
We found that whilst time to walk to the park is an important metric, it is insufficient to describe the barriers to park use in urban communities.
Impacts for city policy and practice
Our finding shows that
Further information
Full research article:
Beyond proximity and towards equity: a multidimensional view of urban greenspace access by Daniel Hindman, Jessie Chien, Craig Pollack.
Related posts

People living in informal settlements endure the disproportionate burden of health vulnerabilities due to poor living conditions, overcrowding and infrastructural neglect. I examine how social, economic, political and environmental forces converge to amplify health disparities in Harare’s informal settlements.

Urban environments and public spaces play a crucial role in shaping mental health, life satisfaction, and social connections. Most studies have mainly looked at cities as a general category, but we still don’t fully understand how different kinds of public spaces affect people’s mental well-being. We try to fill that gap by looking at seven types of urban spaces to find out which ones help people feel better mentally.

Deaths by suicide are the leading cause of violent death. Suicide is a silent plague that is killing people daily in different cities and towns of Spain. Is the type of settlement and air temperature affecting the probability of killing yourself? What we can deduce from statistical models.