Creating Equal Opportunities for a Healthy Weight Workshop Summary (2013) / Chapter Skim
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2 Building Physical and Social Environments for Physical Activity in High-Risk Communities
2 Building Physical and Social Environments for Physical Activity in High-Risk Communities
Pages 15-26
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From page 15... ...
Disparities in access to physical activity, parks, green space, and physical education are civil rights issues that can be remedied in the courts and through voluntary compliance with equal justice laws, if necessary.
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Robert García, founding director and counsel of The City Project in Los Angeles, described how civil rights laws can be used to achieve public health objectives. Myron Floyd, professor in the Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management at North Carolina State University, summarized the benefits associated with parks and recreational facilities and how those benefits can be extended to more people.
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From page 17... ...
Strategy 1-1 in Accelerating Progress in Obesity Prevention calls for communities, organizations, community planners, and public health professionals to enhance the physical and built environment, rethink community design, and ensure access to places for physical activity. Sallis listed several options, derived partly from his research, that could contribute to implementing this strategy: Target funding for sidewalks and bike paths in neighborhoods with primarily low-income and minority populations.
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Target training in physical activity leadership to child care providers serving low-income and predominantly minority children. The fourth strategy is to provide support for the science and practice of physical activity.
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The City Project has worked to achieve its mission in and around Los Angeles.2 García pointed out some of The City Project's accomplishments, including successful efforts to pass $10 billion in statewide park bond measures, with overwhelming support from minority voters and low-income voters; working with diverse alliances, helping to create or preserve more than 1,000 acres of green space in park-poor, low-income Los Angeles communities; being involved in greening the Los Angeles and San Gabriel rivers; 1 The City Project is a nonprofit policy and legal advocacy team. 2 More information about The City Project is available at http://www.city projectca.org.
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The city and a wealthy developer were proposing to build warehouses on this site without conducting an environmental review or considering the park alternative and the impact on low-income minorities in the neighborhood. That site is now Los Angeles State Historic Park, which the Los Angeles Times Magazine called "a heroic monument" and "a symbol of hope" (García et al., 2004; Ricci, 2001)
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Furthermore, civil rights issues can be pursued not just in the courts but also through coalition building, policy advocacy, and other measures aimed at obtaining voluntary compliance with legal requirements. These approaches can extend beyond parks and physical education to encompass other areas, such as access to health care, that involve federal financial assistance and are marked by disparities based on protected characteristics.
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García suggested that the public health community needs to work with the civil rights community to bend the arc of justice toward public health for all. Civil rights laws have important implications for addressing, alleviating, and eliminating health disparities.
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"If you don't recall anything else from today's meeting, remember this lesson: The civil rights laws are a tool for you in the public health community to look at, to use, and to consider to achieve health justice for all." -- Robert García ADVANCING HEALTH EQUITY THROUGH PUBLIC PARKS AND RECREATION SERVICES Summary of Remarks by Myron Floyd Public parks and recreation services can help eliminate disparities in physical activity and childhood obesity. In a study of more than 20,000 adolescents, those living in areas with more parks and recreational facilities engaged in more moderate and vigorous physical activities and had lower rates of being overweight (Gordon-Larsen et al., 2006)
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For example, areas of Los Angeles with predominantly Latino or black populations have far less park acreage per 1,000 residents than areas with predominantly white populations (Wolch et al., 2005)
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. In a study in Los Angeles, white children had more access than minority children to play equipment, basketball courts, and walking and jogging tracks (Sister et al., 2010)
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These features then can be designed into new parks, and funding can be pursued to incorporate them into existing parks. 160 140 120 Millions of Dollars 100 80 60 40 20 0 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Fiscal Year FIGURE 2-2 The Land and Water Conservation Fund has been a major source of funding for state and local park development, but its funding has declined in recent years.
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