Green Envy

By: Cristina Aguirre and Karina Martinez-CarterThe news:

In February, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon praised Chicago for working toward environmental sustainability.

Behind the news:

Chicago might not look that green for every resident. Chicago’s nearly 600 parks and recreational facilities are unevenly distributed throughout the city, a Chicago Reporter analysis of Chicago Park District data shows.

At least 20 parks and recreational facilities are found in seven ZIP codes, with 60614 tallying the highest in the city with 24 sites. But no parks and facilities can be found in six of the ZIP codes in the city, while nine ZIP codes had between one to five sites.

In ZIP codes where more than half the residents are African American, 228 parks and recreational facilities are found. White ZIP codes, meanwhile, have 149, Latino areas have 80 and mixed areas have 151.

The analysis shows that the city has the highest rate-per-resident of parks and recreational facilities in black ZIP codes, with 2.41 sites per 10,000 residents, followed by white ZIP codes with 2.10 sites. Latino ZIP codes have the lowest rate at 1.46 sites per 10,000 residents.

Erma Tranter, president of Chicago’s nonprofit Friends of the Parks, said the city is in need of more green space. The city and its lakefront give the allusion of wide open spaces, but it has relatively little park area compared to other sizable cities, she said.

“Chicago is park-poor throughout,” Tranter said. “Out of 77 community areas, 55 do not have two acres of park land per 1,000 population. They are desperate for land.”

In the past, Chicago has allotted more money toward the parks in white wards rather than black and Hispanic ones, Tranter added. This was especially prevalent during the ’60s and ’70s before the courts began to regulate the park district’s expenditures.

“They spent the dollars where there were parks,” Tranter said. “They said they would reverse that trend and spend 65 cents of every dollar in minority community areas in order to bring that imbalance to a level playing field.”

Jessica Maxey-Faulker, spokeswoman for the Chicago Park District, said it is difficult to look at residential demographics and park distribution together. Planning and decisions for the parks’ locations occurred years ago.

“Some of these parks have been around for hundreds of years,” she said.