Los Angeles Needs More Park Sites

We applaud your July 7 editorial (“A Green Explosion”) on the major advancements Los Angeles has made on creating more urban parks--we may have turned a corner. After being starved of park funds for several decades, Los Angeles is now responsible for over $52 million in park bond funds.

We should celebrate every one of the park projects mentioned in your editorial.

We must point out, however, that these parks do not begin to address the severe lack of access to parks of any kind in the most dense and crowded parts of the city. Those projects cannot replace a real and systematic approach to providing resources to the languishing existing parks and to creating many, many more in the urban core and older suburbs of the city. In these places there is approximately one-third of an acre of neighborhood park space per 1,000 persons. This falls pitifully short of the city’s goal of two acres per 1,000 and the National Society for Park Resources’ goal of four acres. Further, we may have exhausted our ability to create any more 50-acre parks or even a modest 8.5-acre park, due to a lack of sufficient monetary resources and large parcels.

Historically, the city has neglected opportunities to create parks in our most densely developed residential neighborhoods, ignoring the social and environmental benefits of doing so. Land still remains to create small, accessible parks if we are creative and begin to use empty lots, oversized parking lots, alleyways and leftover bits and pieces of land. We must look beyond our usual ideas if we are to truly meet the promise of our $2.1-billion park bond.

Stephanie Taylor

Co-Director, Coalition LA

Angela Johnson Meszaros

Executive Director

Calif. League of Conservation

Voters Education Fund

Los Angeles