overview | LA: starved for green | inequitable distribution of green | existing measures are ineffectual | environmental reasons for LANLT | opportunistic strategy

There has been widespread recognition of the severity of the lack of parks in the City of Los Angeles and the County of Los Angeles. Park advocates have put park bond propositions on the ballot to address this issue. Proposition A was a County Bond Initiative passed in 1992, with a similar measure passing in 1996. Proposition K was a City Park Bond Initiative passed in 1996. Statewide, Propositions 12 and 13 which passed in 2000 and Proposition 40 which was passed a couple of years later, provided funding for parks. These bonds provided billions of park dollars for the Los Angeles are, yet little of this money has been allocated to creating the kinds of small open spaces that have been proven so effective in revitalizing neighborhoods and renaturalizing cities.

Proposition K funding patterns have exacerbated rather than ameliorated the existing inequalities in park and open space resource distribution in the City of Los Angeles. This has occurred since a large amount of the funding was invested in improvements to existing facilities, serving as a supplement to the City’s Recreation and Parks Department. Neighborhoods with the largest shares of young people received half as much Proposition K funding on a per youth basis as areas with the least concentration of youth.

Districts with the highest rates of park accessibility received as much or more bond funds than many areas with higher poverty, higher concentrations of young people and below average park accessibility.