Papers by Alessandro Rigolon
Journal of Park and Recreation Administration, 2019
Cities around the world are increasingly developing iconic parks and greenways in historically ma... more Cities around the world are increasingly developing iconic parks and greenways in historically marginalized neighborhoods to provide social, health, and environmental benefits to their residents. Yet some iconic green space projects trigger increases in housing prices in nearby areas, resulting in the influx of wealthy newcomers and the displacement of the lowest income residents, in a process referred to as environmental gentrification. In this context, park and recreation managers face a dilemma: How should they integrate green spaces in low-income areas when those efforts might ultimately displace the vulnerable residents they are designed to serve? To resolve this dilemma, scholars have proposed the concept of “just green enough” to describe sustainability-oriented initiatives that seek to promote green space development while keeping low-income residents in place. Yet we know very little about what this “just green enough” approach means for park and recreation management or how it relates to the three key components of environmental justice (distributional, procedural, and interactional). To address this gap, we explore strategies that park and recreation managers are employing to combat environmental gentrification. Using comparative case studies of park projects in Atlanta, Chicago, and Philadelphia, we integrate primary interview and focus group data with information from secondary sources (e.g., recreation management plans, land use plans, housing policies) to search for solutions that can work across a range of diverse contexts. We advance the “just green enough” approach by presenting four sets of strategies that park and recreation professionals can use to achieve environmentally just outcomes when working on new or renovated parks in marginalized communities. First, park agencies need to partner with urban planners to establish or preserve a sufficient number of affordable housing units near new or renovated parks. Second, park agencies need to ensure that their leadership staff and on-the-ground employees reflect the ethnoracial diversity of the communities around new or renovated parks. Third, community outreach activities for new or renovated parks should adequately engage people of different races/ethnicities, ages, and incomes, and prepare the most marginalized people to meaningfully participate. Fourth, new and renovated parks and their recreation programs should welcome and engage longtime residents, and not just wealthier newcomers. Together, these strategies outline a more than “just green enough” approach that helps park professionals achieve equitable greening by (1) ensuring marginalized populations get just as much, if not more, access to quality green space as privileged groups, and (2) protecting longtime local residents’ ability to stay in place and thrive in the face of gentrification.
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Leisure Sciences, 2019
Socioeconomic and racial-ethnic inequities in access to recreation settings are widely considered... more Socioeconomic and racial-ethnic inequities in access to recreation settings are widely considered environmental justice (EJ) issues. Researchers in leisure, geography, urban planning, and other disciplines have published important theoretical contributions on EJ related to recreation and parks, but such contributions have not been examined conjointly to identify their broader implications. In this article, we use an integrated definition of EJ that includes distributional, procedural, and interactional justice to connect previous theoretical perspectives on EJ about recreation and parks. First, we present an ecological model of recreation that recognizes EJ. We use the ecological model to systematically analyze the policy, physical, social, and perceived environmental factors and the individual factors that impact marginalized people’s recreation participation. Second, we connect the EJ model to theory-relevant literature about recreation and parks. Third, we present future research areas on EJ for recreation and parks with key implications for advancing justice through policy change.
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Urban Studies, 2019
Recent research shows that the establishment of new parks in historically disinvested neighbourho... more Recent research shows that the establishment of new parks in historically disinvested neighbourhoods can result in housing price increases and the displacement of low-income people of colour. Some suggest that a ‘just green enough’ approach, in particular its call for the creation of small parks and nearby affordable housing, can reduce the chances of this phenomenon some call ‘green gentrification’. Yet, no study has tested these claims empirically across a sample of diverse cities. Focusing on 10 cities in the United States, we run multilevel logistic regressions to uncover whether the location (distance from downtown), size and function (active transportation) of new parks built in the 2000–2008 and 2008–2015 periods predict whether the census tracts around them gentrified. We find that park function and location are strong predictors of gentrification, whereas park size is not. In particular, new greenway parks with an active transportation component built in the 2008–2015 period triggered gentrification more than other park types, and new parks located closer to downtown tend to foster gentrification more than parks on a city’s outskirts. These findings call into question the ‘just green enough’ claim that small parks foster green gentrification less than larger parks do.
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International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2019
Background: Scholars and policymakers have criticized public education in developed countries for... more Background: Scholars and policymakers have criticized public education in developed countries for perpetuating health and income disparities. Several studies have examined the ties between green space and academic performance, hypothesizing that green space can foster performance, and, over time, help reduce such disparities. Although numerous reviews have analyzed the link between nature and child health, none have focused on academic achievement. Methods: We identified 13 peer-reviewed articles that examined associations between academic outcomes, types of green spaces, and distances in which green spaces were measured around schools. Results: Of the 122 findings reported in the 13 articles, 64% were non-significant, 8% were significant and negative, and 28% were significant and positive. Positive findings were limited to greenness, tree cover, and green land cover at distances up to 2000 m around schools. End-of-semester grades and college preparatory exams showed greater shares of positive associations than math or reading test scores. Most findings regarding writing test scores were non-significant, and moderation effects of socioeconomic status, gender, and urbanization showed mixed results. Conclusions: The extant literature on green space and academic performance is small, shows mixed results, and mostly includes articles using observational, school-level research designs. Regardless, there is sufficient evidence to warrant further research on this topic, including effect moderation and mechanistic pathways.
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Journal of Urban Affairs, 2019
Researchers have determined many of the factors that make neighborhoods susceptible to gentrifica... more Researchers have determined many of the factors that make neighborhoods susceptible to gentrification, but we know less about why some gentrification-susceptible neighborhoods gentrify and others do not. Some studies claim that internal neighborhood features such as historic housing stock are the most powerful determinants of gentrification, whereas other studies argue that a lack of strong affordable housing policies is the primary driver of neighborhood change. In this article, we move beyond a focus on singular determinants to recognize the interplay between these variables. We develop a socioecological model of gentrification in which we characterize neighborhood change as shaped by nested layers we categorize as people (e.g., demographics), place (e.g., built environment), and policy (e.g., housing programs). We then test the model in the five largest urban regions in the United States to begin to determine which variables within the people, place, and policy layers best predict whether a neighborhood will gentrify.
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Urban Geography, 2018
Disparities in park provision raise environmental and health justice concerns. With public agenci... more Disparities in park provision raise environmental and health justice concerns. With public agencies stepping back from providing environmental amenities in increasingly neoliberal urban regimes, nonprofits in the U.S. have assumed a prominent role in the parks and recreation sector. But very few studies have comprehensively assessed whether and how park nonprofits contribute to increasing or closing the equity gap in park provision. Focusing on Los Angeles, I analyze how park nonprofits operate and which demographic groups benefit from new and improved parks supported by nonprofits. Based on interviews with local practitioners and geospatial analyses, I find that nonprofits are leading a park equity movement in Los Angeles and helped address park disparities. To do so, nonprofits built diverse coalitions, leveraged complementary strengths, coalesced with public agencies, and helped generate public funds for parks. These findings show that equity-oriented nonprofits can successfully challenge the unjust outcomes of neoliberal governance.
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Urban Science, 2018
This review examines disparities in access to urban green space (UGS) based on socioeconomic stat... more This review examines disparities in access to urban green space (UGS) based on socioeconomic status (SES) and race-ethnicity in Global South cities. It was motivated by documented human health and ecosystem services benefits of UGS in Global South countries and UGS planning barriers in rapidly urbanizing cities. Additionally, another review of Global North UGS studies uncovered that high-SES and White people have access to a higher quantity of higher quality UGSs than low-SES and racial-ethnic minority people but that no clear differences exist regarding who lives closer to UGS. Thus, we conducted a systematic review to uncover (1) whether UGS inequities in Global North cities are evident in Global South cities and (2) whether inequities in the Global South vary between continents. Through the PRISMA approach and five inclusion criteria, we identified 46 peer-reviewed articles that measured SES or racial-ethnic disparities in access to UGS in Global South cities. We found inequities for UGS quantity (high-SES people are advantaged in 85% of cases) and UGS proximity (74% of cases). Inequities were less consistent for UGS quality (65% of cases). We also found that UGS inequities were consistent across African, Asian, and Latin American cities. These findings suggest that Global South cities experience similar inequities in UGS quantity and quality as Global North cities, but that the former also face inequities in UGS proximity.
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Like other urban amenities, parks are unevenly distributed throughout cities, with advantaged gro... more Like other urban amenities, parks are unevenly distributed throughout cities, with advantaged groups enjoying better access to better parks than more disadvantaged residents. Although such inequities are well documented, we know less about the mechanisms that shape them. We conduct a case study in Denver that includes a GIS analysis and interviews with local planners and historians. We find that while park funding systems have tended to steer investments into richer neighborhoods, racially discriminatory land use and housing policies that shape where low-income people of color can live have produced some of the deepest and most persistent inequities in access to parks. Recent improvements in park access for low-income people of color are based less on equity-oriented efforts by public agencies and more on residential location choices of affluent white residents.
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Examination of the greenspace—human health relationship operates in at least four dimensions: wha... more Examination of the greenspace—human health relationship operates in at least four dimensions: what is considered greenspace? which moderators and mediators are included? what outcomes are measured? and which units of analysis (e.g., individuals, cities) are studied? We examined three of these four dimensions in a cross-sectional study of 496 of the 500 most populated US cities (total population size = 97,574,613, average population per city = 197,920). Spatial average models tested the effect of two greenspace measures (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index greenness and tree cover) on two outcomes (obesity and mental health), while adjusting for income, race and ethnicity, sprawl, age, sex, physical inactivity, median age of housing, and total population. We conducted analyses at the city scale, which is an understudied unit of analysis, and compared findings to individual-and neighborhood-level studies. In two of four models, greenspace was associated with better health. We found race and ethnicity moderated this relationship with varying results. In full sample analyses, cities with greater percentages of non-Hispanic Whites showed links between higher tree cover and lower obesity but marginal relationships between higher greenness and lower obesity. In subsample analyses with majority-non-Hispanic Black cities, higher tree cover was associated with lower obesity and better mental health. These findings advance previous research by showing that race and ethnicity moderate the greenspace—health link at the city level.
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A growing body of research shows affluent White neighborhoods have more acres of parks and more p... more A growing body of research shows affluent White neighborhoods have more acres of parks and more park facilities than low-income ethnic minority communities in many Global North cities. Most of these investigations focused on neighborhood-level differences and did not analyze broader inequities across cities. This is a particularly significant limitation in the U.S., where changes in the political economy of parks due to a reduced local tax base have led cities to compete against each other to secure park funding from national nonprofits and public agencies. To address this gap, we examined whether the quality of urban park systems – measured through The Trust for Public Land’s ParkScore – varies depending on a city’s median income and ethnic composition. Based on multivariate regressions in which we control for features of the urban fabric, we found U.S. cities with higher median incomes and lower percentages of Latino and Non-Hispanic Black residents have higher ParkScores than other cities. Some inequities also emerged for park coverage, park spending per person, and park facilities, with majority-Latino cities being particularly disadvantaged. These findings echo the results of neighborhood-level studies in Global North contexts, suggesting neighborhood-level inequities in park provision might scale up to inequities across cities. This study contributes to environmental justice theory and advocacy by demonstrating the importance of scaling up analyses of park provision to cross-city comparisons. Implications for landscape planning, public policy, and grant-making are discussed.
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Cities, 2018
Environmental gentrification, or the influx of wealthy residents to historically disenfranchised ... more Environmental gentrification, or the influx of wealthy residents to historically disenfranchised neighborhoods due to new green spaces, is an increasingly common phenomenon around the globe. In particular, investments in large green infrastructure projects (LGIPs) such as New York's High Line have contributed to displacing longterm low-income residents. Many consider environmental gentrification to be an important environmental justice issue, but most of this research has focused on distributional justice; that is, quantifying whether LGIPs have indeed contributed to gentrifying neighborhoods around them. Limited work has focused on procedural justice in the context of environmental gentrification, or how planning processes can shape project outcomes. This is a particularly critical oversight because many LGIP planning processes are led by nonprofits, a governance model that has already raised important equity concerns in the context of planning and maintenance of smaller neighborhood parks. Yet less is known about the impacts of park nonprofits leading LGIPs. To address these gaps, we study the planning process of the 606, a rails-to-trails project located in Chicago, U.S. that contributed to environmental gentrification. Through interviews with key actors and a review of planning documents, we find that although delegation of leadership to park nonprofits has some benefits, a number of drawbacks also arise that might make gentrification a more likely outcome, namely the fragmentation of efforts to develop economically viable LGIPs while also preserving affordable housing. These findings suggest the need for cross-sectoral municipal planning efforts and for building more robust coalitions comprised of parks and housing nonprofits.
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Journal of Urban Affairs, 2017
The walkability of streets located near parks matters for public health and environmental justice... more The walkability of streets located near parks matters for public health and environmental justice. Urban parks could help address increasing health concerns in the United States; however, parks tend to be inequitably distributed, and unsafe or uncomfortable routes to parks might be additional impediments to park use. We therefore seek to uncover whether low-income ethnic minority communities near a neighborhood park have less walkable routes to parks, compared to wealthier and Whiter areas. We use Los Angeles’s San Fernando Valley as a case study and a street audit tool measuring walkability through microscale variables (e.g., pedestrian facilities). We find that low-income neighborhoods near parks have higher traffic volumes, fewer shade trees, and street environments that are less clean and well maintained compared to high-income areas and that similar disparities exist between ethnic minority and White communities. These inequities could deter low-income people of color, especially children, from visiting urban parks.
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Journal of Urban Affairs, 2017
Privately owned parks and public spaces (POPS) are increasingly common in New Urbanist (NU) commu... more Privately owned parks and public spaces (POPS) are increasingly common in New Urbanist (NU) communities. POPS raise concerns related to environmental privilege, equity, and inclusion; however, no investigation has fully analyzed whether POPS in NU communities cause these same concerns. This is particularly problematic because of NU’s recognition as a sustainable planning paradigm and because NU proponents seek to establish mixed-income and ethnically diverse communities. Thus, this study examines how these 3 concerns about POPS play out in NU developments. In addition, it analyzes how municipal policies and real estate processes contribute to establishing POPS in NU communities. We find that concerns about environmental privilege, equity, and inclusion are well founded, and that reliance on POPS provides significant advantages for developers, residents, and municipalities alike, mostly because of cost savings and notions of exclusivity.
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Young people − including children and teenagers − are spending less time playing outside in natur... more Young people − including children and teenagers − are spending less time playing outside in nature than previous generations. This decrease is problematic, as parks can provide young people with physical and mental health benefits. Also, growing health disparities exist between white and ethnic minority young people in the U.S. These concerns motivate an investigation into access to parks for young people of different ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Although several recent studies have focused on park quality, no previous inquiry has employed a youth-centered framework to measure access, nor has used an index of park quality describing young people’s park needs. To address these gaps, I investigated access to parks in Denver, Colorado through a comprehensive geospatial approach − including park proximity, acreage, and quality − that models park and walkability features supporting frequent park use for children and teenagers. My findings show a multifaceted pattern of environmental injustice. Ethnic minority and low-income people have better access than other groups in terms of park proximity. High-income and white people, however, have access to significantly more acres of parks per youth, to more parks with excellent levels of quality, and to safer parks than other groups. The dramatic disparities in park safety might strongly limit park use among Denver’s low-income young people of color. This analytical framework can help park planners identify specific gaps in park provision for youth and develop strategies to address quality and acreage disparities.
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Visiting urban parks regularly can provide significant physical and mental health benefits for ch... more Visiting urban parks regularly can provide significant physical and mental health benefits for children and teenagers, but these benefits are tempered by park quality, amenities, maintenance, and safety. Therefore, planning and public health scholars have developed instruments to measure park quality, but most of these tools require costly and time-consuming field surveys and only a handful focus specifically on youth. We rectify these issues by developing the QUality INdex of Parks for Youth (QUINPY) based on a robust literature review of studies on young people’s park visitation habits and an extensive validation process by academic and professional experts. Importantly, the QUINPY relies on publicly available geospatial data to measure park quality. We then successfully pilot test the QUINPY in Denver and New York City. We believe that park agencies, planning consultants, researchers, and nonprofits aiming to assess park quality will find this tool useful. The QUINPY is particularly promising given the increasing amount of publicly available geospatial data and other recent advancements in geospatial science.
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This article reviews the growing environmental justice literature documenting access to urban par... more This article reviews the growing environmental justice literature documenting access to urban parks across socioeconomic and ethnic groups. The extensive public health and sustainability benefits of parks, combined with the long history of discrimination against people of color in the United States and elsewhere, motivate an update of the literature on access to parks. Although a few reviews showed evidence of inequity in park provision, no previous review fully conceptualized and analyzed different components of access to parks. To address this gap, I conducted an analytical literature review focusing on three groups of parameters: park proximity, park acreage, and park quality. Based on a sample of 49 empirical studies mostly focusing on cities in developed countries, my review shows fairly inconclusive findings for park proximity, but striking inequities for park acreage and park quality. Low socioeconomic and ethnic minority people have access to fewer acres of parks, fewer acres of parks per person, and to parks with lower quality, maintenance, and safety than more privileged people. These demographic inequities often reflect geographical divides between inner-cities and suburbs. These findings are particularly concerning for public health because large, high-quality, well-maintained, and safe parks can better foster physical activity and its associated benefits than small parks with few amenities. Also, identifying inequities in access to parks based on proximity, acreage or quality can help develop targeted landscape planning strategies to address specific inequities.
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Given the benefits of repeated contact with nature for young people, inequities in park spatial d... more Given the benefits of repeated contact with nature for young people, inequities in park spatial distribution between young people of different socio-economic status and ethnicity are a serious environmental justice issue. A growing body of literature has documented that low-income young people of color have access to fewer acres of parks and to parks with lower quality than wealthier Non-Hispanic White young people. However, very few studies have investigated the planning processes that have contributed to these inequities. Also, no previous investigation on access to parks has combined qualitative research on young people’s use and perception of parks in a geospatial
analysis of park spatial distribution. In this dissertation, I integrated the analyses of equitable decision making processes, of equitable park distributions, and of park quality
in relation to young people’s needs to understand how planning policies and practices contributed to park provision for different income and ethnic groups, with a particular focus on parks that can be meaningful for young people. Drawing from geospatial methods, interviews with experts, and policy analysis, I uncovered a complex picture of environmental injustice, including inequities in the spatial distribution of parks and in the policies and practices that led to such distribution. My geospatial analysis showed that low-income ethnic minority young people have very low access to safe parks and to parks with excellent levels of quality, which might substantially limit their park visitation. Also,
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the Poundstone Amendment, a state policy limiting Denver’s annexations from surrounding counties aimed to avoid ethnic integration in schools, combined with the lack of an impact fee for parks in infill developments, has significantly hindered Denver’s capacity to improve park provision, particularly for its low-income ethnic minority people. The mixed research integration of qualitative and quantitative datasets showed that most cases of distributional injustice are linked to unjust processes, while very few cases of partial distributional equity are related to just processes. This dissertation has important implications for park and land use planning, including current barriers and possible solutions to increasing park equity, for environmental justice research and practice, and for the use of mixed research in planning.
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Geographies of Children and Young People. Risk, Protection, Provision and Policy.
Abstract Informal play in nature is fundamental to children’s health and well-being, providing ... more Abstract Informal play in nature is fundamental to children’s health and well-being, providing physical, social, and psychological benefits. Yet children in urban environments frequently lack access to natural spaces for free play. Participatory planning similarly is important across many domains in contributing to children’s well-being. This chapter reviews the benefits and threats to children’s informal play in nature in cities today. It then examines the role of green schoolyards as one means of providing opportunities for such play. Finally, it explores a case study of a participatory planning and design process to expand nature play opportunities in a schoolyard and adjacent park in Boulder, Colorado, USA. Interviews with professionals involved in the project are used to identify themes, programs, and policies at municipal, state, and international levels that promote children’s informal play in urban green spaces.
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Buildings, 4(2), 69-94., 2014
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Papers by Alessandro Rigolon
analysis of park spatial distribution. In this dissertation, I integrated the analyses of equitable decision making processes, of equitable park distributions, and of park quality
in relation to young people’s needs to understand how planning policies and practices contributed to park provision for different income and ethnic groups, with a particular focus on parks that can be meaningful for young people. Drawing from geospatial methods, interviews with experts, and policy analysis, I uncovered a complex picture of environmental injustice, including inequities in the spatial distribution of parks and in the policies and practices that led to such distribution. My geospatial analysis showed that low-income ethnic minority young people have very low access to safe parks and to parks with excellent levels of quality, which might substantially limit their park visitation. Also,
iv
the Poundstone Amendment, a state policy limiting Denver’s annexations from surrounding counties aimed to avoid ethnic integration in schools, combined with the lack of an impact fee for parks in infill developments, has significantly hindered Denver’s capacity to improve park provision, particularly for its low-income ethnic minority people. The mixed research integration of qualitative and quantitative datasets showed that most cases of distributional injustice are linked to unjust processes, while very few cases of partial distributional equity are related to just processes. This dissertation has important implications for park and land use planning, including current barriers and possible solutions to increasing park equity, for environmental justice research and practice, and for the use of mixed research in planning.
analysis of park spatial distribution. In this dissertation, I integrated the analyses of equitable decision making processes, of equitable park distributions, and of park quality
in relation to young people’s needs to understand how planning policies and practices contributed to park provision for different income and ethnic groups, with a particular focus on parks that can be meaningful for young people. Drawing from geospatial methods, interviews with experts, and policy analysis, I uncovered a complex picture of environmental injustice, including inequities in the spatial distribution of parks and in the policies and practices that led to such distribution. My geospatial analysis showed that low-income ethnic minority young people have very low access to safe parks and to parks with excellent levels of quality, which might substantially limit their park visitation. Also,
iv
the Poundstone Amendment, a state policy limiting Denver’s annexations from surrounding counties aimed to avoid ethnic integration in schools, combined with the lack of an impact fee for parks in infill developments, has significantly hindered Denver’s capacity to improve park provision, particularly for its low-income ethnic minority people. The mixed research integration of qualitative and quantitative datasets showed that most cases of distributional injustice are linked to unjust processes, while very few cases of partial distributional equity are related to just processes. This dissertation has important implications for park and land use planning, including current barriers and possible solutions to increasing park equity, for environmental justice research and practice, and for the use of mixed research in planning.