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| Ecuadoran immigrants play soccer in Powderhorn Park Minneapolis, Minnesota Photograph by Alexia Fernández Campbell theatlantic.com |
We are going to stay on the subject of public parks today, focusing on municipal parks. Yesterday we looked at the National Park Service's troubled history and what needs to do to reconcile it. However, racial and economic inequality in city and county parks is not well documented. It seems that we take it for granted that urban parks are accessible to everyone. Bicycle trails, baseball, and soccer fields are considered a luxury amenity of many affluent neighborhoods that increase property values and create a sense of community. However, in the inner cities, public parks attract crime and often a victim of disinvestment.
Alexia Fernández Campbell's CityLab article, "Inequality in American Public Parks," reports, "With this in mind, it was probably only a matter of time for a civil-rights movement to brew in Minneapolis, which for three years in a row has snagged the title of best parks system in the U.S., as awarded by the The Trust for Public Land..." Minneapolis residents has ample reasons to puff themselves up over neatly groomed parks within walking distance from their house. Be that as it may, the smooth jogging paths and perfectly manicured pitches have become the stage for a bitter racial battle with Minneapolitans of color claiming that access to local parks, spending on it, and the staffing of them is mostly oriented toward the city's wealthy, white residents
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| Protestors at the bi-weekly meeting of the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board Minneapolis, Minnesota Photograph by Alexia Fernández Campbell theatlantic.com |
"...I attended the parks board's bi-weekly, which in any other city would likely have been a dull affair. I had been sitting there for hardly longer than 10 minutes when a group of young black men walked in, carrying signs that read MPRB, Separate and Unequal and Hell No! Jim Crow."
The young men remained silent but their presence was noticed. The board was fretful after the previous, when police officers escorted protestors from the meeting for disorderly conduct and issued citations to the group.
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| Frustrated protestor theatlantic.com |
The protestors have a long list of complaints. One of those complaints is the subject of staffing. Ms. Fernández Campbell writes, "The local chapter of the NAACP has been a vocal critic of the parks board, arguing that workers of color face discrimination in hiring, promotions, and on-the-job-disciplinary actions." Minneapolis parks superintendent Jayne Miller told Ms. Fernández Campbell that "...she has listened to employee grievances and now trains staff in recognizing bias in the hiring process." Ms. Miller also pointed out that since she started six years ago, "...the percentage of employees in the park system who are of color has risen to 25 percent, up from 21 percent..." Ms. Fernández Campbell notes that the parks was unable to say how many were in supervisory positions.
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| Homeless man sitting on a park bench blogs.reuters.com |
Funding is another big issue. According to the data, parks in northern Minneapolis get disproportionately less money for some types of recreational spending-lessons, supplies, and maintenance. Some of the city's low-income communities are located there, with a large number of ethnic minorities. Four out of the 12 local parks that received a flow of spending in north Minneapolis were allowed less than $85,000, and three received less than $25,000. On the opposite side of spectrum, no neighborhood park, located in affluent southwest communities, received less than $150,000. Alexia Fernández Campbell observes, "To be fair, three of the northern parks did get some of the largest chunks of money from the board last year, but the variation in funding in north Minneapolis is quite stark, while it is consistently generous in southwest Minneapolis." This contrasts with parks board's disproportionate spending on youth development programs-i.e. mentoring at north Minneapolis parks. Specifically, "There were ten parks that received this stream of spending in north Minneapolis, compared with two in southwest Minneapolis."
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| North Commons Waterpark Minneapolis, Minnesota minneapolispark.org |
At the same board meeting Ms. Fernández Campbell attended, the public comment period got quite intense as some of the African American residents took to task the commissioners for doing very little to address racial inequality. Nekima Levy-Pounds, a civil rights attorney and president of the local NAACP chapter, had harsh words for the commissioners regarding their actions at the previous meeting.
...If we were white residents from Southwest, there is no way you have the police come in and arrest like trash.
Ms. Levy-Pounds told Ms. Fernández Campbell "...she has been attending these meetings all summer, and scoffs at Minneapolis's claim to having the best parks system in the country." She said It's the best parks system for white people.
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| North Mississippi Park wading pool Minneapolis, Minnesota minneapolis.org |
The issue of racial inequality is starting to garner national attention. Department of Interior Secretary Sally Jewell just this year acknowledged that the national parks system primarily cater to older Caucasian Americans and need to reach out to a younger, more diverse audience. Minneapolis is set to be the first city to seriously begin remedying the situation, mainly because of public pressure. Minneapolis is no longer a homogenous city: "Now it's 66 percent white, compared to 87 percent in 1980, with a growing number of black, Native American, East African, Asian American, and Latino families settling in. The park board is still all white."
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| Historic image of North Commons Park Minneapolis, Minnesota minneapolisparks.com |
Alexia Fernández Campbell met with community leaders who have been advocating for racial equality in the parks system for years. Three of those activists, Jake Virden, Emmanuel Ortiz, and Ashley Fairbanks, met her at Peavey Field, an inner-city green space that has been historically neglected by the parks board. Ms. Fernández Campbell observes, "The large park looked well maintained, but hadn't been renovated in a while. Ms. Fairbanks, who works for the nonprofit Voice for Racial Justice said,
We grew up in these parks...We grew up in these parks...For people who didn't have money to go to camp in the summer, this is where we came.
One of Peavey Park's benefits is free lunches during the summer.
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| Peavey Park Field Minneapolis, Minnesota minneapolisparks.org |
Voices for Racial Justice and its fellow nonprofit Hope Community are among the organizations that have been pressuring the board to prioritize funding for place like Peavey Park and they have had some success. Ms. Fernández Campbell reports, "This year, the parks board adopted new criteria to decide where to spend its money on infrastructure projects." Prior, the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board did not decide which parks got funding for upgrades in a systematic manner. Jayne Miller told Ms. Fernández Campbell, "though it tended to focus on modifying playgrounds and splash ponds to meet safety standards." The new priority system put Peavey Park near the top of the list for investment, which translates that it will be eligible for millions of dollars in renovations otherwise it would not. Ms. Miller continued "Minneapolis is the first city-park system to prioritize infrastructure spending in poor neighborhoods with large minority communities, in neighborhoods where parks are in the worst condition. Specifically,
We are doing a lot to make sure we are investing equitably in our parks and we are engaging diverse communities in our parks.
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| Jayne Miller Superintendent Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board minneapolisparks.org |
When Ms. Miller took over the board in 2010, she became cognizant of the perceptions the parks system was not properly serving the minority and disabled residents. To resolve the matter, she commissioned a Michigan-based consultant to study the scope to the problem and come up with recommendations. Further, she established a community-outreach department in 2011 to engage the underserved communities and get their feedback about what types of activities and sports fields they would like in their parks.
This laudable effort had resulted in cultural sensitivity training for the park staff but its efficacy remains unclear. Ms. Fernández Campbell spoke with a group of Ecuadoran immigrants playing soccer in Powderhorn Park in south Minneapolis, asking them if they had attended a public meeting of the parks board. José Encalada replied in the negative and that he was not aware that a parks board existed. He said,
No one ever invited use or told us about anything.
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| Minnehaha Park Minneapolis, Minnesota city-data.com |
The state of Minnesota would like Minneapolis and other cities to allocate more funds for outreach into communities like Mr. Encalada's. The Twin Cities (Minneapolis-St. Paul) more picturesque parks, like Minnehaha Park, draw millions of visitor annually, yet on three percent are people of color. Ms. Fernández Campbell reports, "The Metropolitan Council, a local agency of state-appointed regional paleness, which funds many of these parks with state money, created focus groups and discovered that lack of awareness about the park was the biggest factor in keeping minority groups away." To increase awareness, the council has proposed that cities spend more of their state funds on attracting new visitors to regional parks, like advertising in ethnic-media outlets.
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| Amatage Park Playground Minneapolis, Minnesota minneapolisparks.org |
This proposal was met with backlash from the parks board. In an open letter to the Metropolitan Council, excerpted in the Star Tribune, Ms. Miller wrote "...that spending $300,000 flyers and marketing materials instead of park maintenance and construction would be seriously questions by our constituents." Ms. Miller said she was not opposed to spending money on reaching out to the underserved communities. She believes that there ought to be more discussion on what would be the best approach.
One subject for discussion is whether or not an independent parks board is the best way to serve Minneapolis's changing demographics. The current makeup of the board does not reflect the city it serves. Perhaps the parks board needs to redraw its six voting districts, in an acknowledgment of the power of minority voters. The parks board does not track demographic information within its voting district (separate from voting districts in other political elections), thus it is difficult to know whether minority voters make up the majority bloc in the districts. Alexia Fernández Campbell opines, "Maybe it's time they should start paying attention to that. When a third of a city is made up of people of color, their governing institutions should reflect that."
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