For Many, Living in L.A. Is No Walk in the Park

Among the loveliest things about living in L.A. is that so much wild terrain--part of what Christopher Isherwood described as California’s “untamed, undomesticated, aloof, prehistoric landscape”--is so close at hand.

It is so close, in fact, that many of us slip free of our urban surrounds as if it’s nothing: walking the dog in Runyon Canyon, trekking with the kids in the hills above the Griffith Observatory, ambling along El Matador beach on a beautiful afternoon. Outings like these get so routine that, after a while, you begin to take them for granted. The magical becomes mundane.

At least until you realize how many Angelenos don’t have contact with any open space, much less a chance to explore the mountains or desert or coast a car ride away.

I began to focus on this disparity after reading Aleta George’s piece about Parchester Village, an African American enclave in the Bay Area that recently triumphed in its efforts to keep free from development the tidal marsh where children from the community have explored and frolicked for 50 years (“Saving the Marsh,” page 20).

“Sea gulls, ospreys and avocets banked sharply in the marine air,” George writes, filling these youngsters with a sense of freedom and discovery and delight.

And that made me curious: What about kids in L.A.? My instinct told me that they must have it pretty good, what with so many outdoor jewels around.

What I found, though, was quite the opposite--especially for children of color. Los Angeles is rich with natural wonders, but those are in effect reserved “for people who are mobile and in the know,” says Tsilah Burman, executive director of the L.A. Neighborhood Land Trust.

The folks Burman’s group works with, by contrast, are lucky to see even a sliver of green. Consider: White neighborhoods here boast 17.4 acres of parkland per 1,000 residents. In Latino sections of the city, that figure is a mere 1.6 acres, a 2005 study shows. And in African American neighborhoods it’s lower still: a measly 0.8 acres.

“It’s an incredible gap,” says Bob Reid, L.A. area director at the Trust for Public Land. The consequences, he adds, are serious: Children who don’t go to the park are far less physically active and healthy than those who do.

Policymakers have been wrestling with the problem for the last few years. In response, Burman’s organization is, among other things, helping to build small “pocket parks” around the city, while Reid’s is set to roll out “fitness zones” with special outdoor equipment--like a Bally gym under the sun.

The trouble is that progress is slow and the challenge enormous. In New York, 91% of kids live within a quarter mile of a park. In San Francisco, it’s 85%. In L.A., where so many of us roam the hills and hike the canyons with barely a second thought, it’s 33%.