Urban parks, playgrounds, and community gardens have many benefits. They fill the need for exercise, play, and contact with nature. They encourage residents to interact with one another and build “social capital,” the connections, trust, and sense of community investment that make neighborhoods work. Parks can increase the value of nearby homes, and if they're safe and well maintained, they reduce crime in the area.

“Parks, when they’re well done, have a real place-making effect,” says Kip Harkness of San Jose's redevelopment agency. “They're an essential component to creating neighborhood identity.” 

The proven benefit of parks

With obesity rates on the rise, parks are especially important for children and teenagers. A study in southern California found children living near parks had lower body mass indexes than those without easy access to parks. Other studies have found that access to parks and recreational programs increases children’s level of physical activity and decreases the number of obese and overweight children. 

Yet in many cities -- particularly in low-income and disadvantaged neighborhoods -- there is not enough parkland and open space to meet residents’ needs. In Los Angeles, for example, predominantly white neighborhoods have nearly 20 times more park space per person than African-American neighborhoods, and more than 50 times more than Latino neighborhoods. A park’s accessibility depends on not just its size and location, but also its design, operating hours, safety, usability for people with special needs, and proximity to public transportation.

Creating and revitalizing parks is one way redevelopment agencies can improve public health and quality of life. California’s Community Redevelopment Law allows redevelopment agencies to buy land and to construct parks so long as three conditions are met: The park has to benefit the project area or its immediate neighborhood; funding can't be available from other sources; and the park will help alleviate blight.

At a time when nearly all local governments are strapped for cash, many redevelopment agencies still have the funds to build parks. How? Because redevelopment agencies pay for parks by issuing bonds, which are repaid through the increase in property taxes collected in the redevelopment area (this is called tax increment financing).

Parks themselves don’t generate tax income, so redevelopment agencies may find parks less appealing than more lucrative developments such as stadiums or shopping centers. Public health professionals and other advocates can lobby redevelopment officials to prioritize parks by highlighting how parks decrease crime and raise the value of nearby properties. Advocates can also help redevelopment agencies access other sources of funding to construct and maintain parks.

The Selma Olinder park story

The San Jose Redevelopment Agency created the 14-acre Selma Olinder park with funding from 16 different sources. The impetus for building the park came from nearby residents, who had significant input in the design process.

Since it opened in 2005, the park has transformed the neighborhood. On most days, it is bustling with people playing soccer and baseball on its fields, using the playground, walking dogs, strolling on its trails, and socializing. Having more residents outside, interacting with one another, lowered crime rates in the surrounding neighborhood.

“That’s the whole concept: you activate a public space and the crime goes down, because people don’t typically commit crimes in front of each other,” says Paul Pereira, neighborhood team manager for the Strong Neighborhoods Initiative, a redevelopment agency program that helps residents form coalitions and prioritize revitalization projects. The success of Selma Olinder park is a reminder of how redevelopment agencies can use parks to improve a neighborhood’s quality of life.