- Author(s): Rubin V.
- Author(s) ID: 7005120857;
- Document Type: Book Chapter
- Publication Stage: Final
- Volume: | Issue: | Article Number:
- Page Start – 187 | Page End – 206 | Page Count:
- Cited By: 6
- DOI:
- EID: Scopus2-s2.0-84903673741
The urban greening movement-the constellation of collective efforts by residents to improve the natural and built environment of their neighborhoods-has evolved into a diverse set of strategies based in at least four distinct but overlapping domains of community organizing and policy change. These domains provide the motivation and conceptual underpinning for a wide variety of local campaigns, programs, and organizations. The creation and revival of parks, gardens, street trees, creeks, and waterfronts are appealing, tangible, and direct, especially when compared to many of the long-term economic strategies that must also be undertaken to revitalize lower-income urban neighborhoods. Support for the celebration of local cultures through public art, street festivals, and food is innately colorful, life-affirming, and often more enjoyable than many of the complex social and educational programs that must also be part of a community-building strategy. Effective urban greening projects are, in short, not only valuable in the long term to the health of the community but intrinsically rewarding to the participants. Most urban greening endeavors grow out of the passionate pursuit of specialists and single-issue advocates: Those who promote community gardens, self-proclaimed “tree people,” creek restoration aficionados, visual artists and their allies with the managerial talent to execute murals and other public art, and entrepreneurs who find environmentally friendly economic niches in the community. Without that kind of deep issue-specific experience and single-minded focus over several years, most of the greening initiatives and projects would never be realized. At the same time, these specific projects fit within some broader categories of community action. These broader categories of framing and acting on urban issues show that the greening movement is beginning to generate a wider base of political and economic support and that it is becoming allied with powerful forces for social and institutional change This essay provides a conceptual framework through which these four domains can be understood, illustrated by a variety of local efforts and recent research. The four domains of organizing and policy reform considered are 1. Advocacy for environmental justice 2. Promotion of community economic development 3. Addressing health disparities through a focus on community factors 4. Advancing equity in urban infrastructure. Advocacy for Environmental Justice. Low-income communities of color have been the predominant location of many kinds of unhealthy and unsafe facilities and dumping grounds, and this disparity has given rise to the environmental justice movement. Some of the dumping has been the result of lawlessness and official neglect, as when vacant lots are not adequately maintained or policed, but other problems, such as proliferation of refuse transfer stations, incinerators, or power plants, are the result of local policy and planning decisions. Many of the country’s most energetic neighborhood redevelopment efforts have started with opposition to these kinds of environmental land use hazards and grown into more proactive efforts to develop new housing, businesses, and open spaces. Promotion of Community Economic Development. The proliferation of vacant lots and properties in lower-income neighborhoods, including residential, industrial, and commercial sites, has created great need and incentive for community-based developers to turn these sites into productive, safe, inviting environments. Parks, open space, outdoor art, and other aspects of the public realm are critical to this kind of redevelopment of sites of all sizes. Community developers have created environmentally focused businesses as well as parks and open spaces for recreation and cultural gatherings. Addressing. Health Disparities Through Community Factors. The recent heightened concern with fitness and weight control as a public policy issue has generated new support for the creation and improvement of urban parks, trails, community gardens, and other open spaces. The increase in obesity, especially in children, is to some extent a societywide problem, but it has its most severe incidence and health effects in low-income communities of color, leading to extremely high rates of diabetes and heart disease. Attention to obesity has coincided with a much higher level of awareness that such problems need to be addressed not just as medical issues but as community factors. As a result, foundations and government agencies centrally concerned with addressing health disparities have lent new funding and technical support to scores of community-based campaigns to create or improve local parks, recreation facilities, walking and bicycling trails, and other places for exercise. The movement to provide nutritious produce through community gardens has also benefited from this infusion of support from the effort to address health disparities. Advancement of Equity in Urban Infrastructure. Parks and open space are a critical element of urban infrastructure. They are essential to the revitalization of cities, and to the health of communities and individuals. Activists from a variety of backgrounds are working to see that parks and related facilities and programs are provided in a way that embodies principles of social and economic equity. The principles apply not only to parks and open space but also to other forms of infrastructure, including school facilities, transportation, water and sewer systems, and even telecommunications technology. The issues covered through the focus on equity include guidance of growth and development patterns, fair allocation of capital and operating funds across neighborhoods in a city and cities in a region, open access to economic opportunities generated by new construction, and promotion of inclusive decision-making processes. The relevance of all these domains can be illustrated by taking stock of the motivations and sources of support to build a new urban park in a lower-income area where parks have been scarce, poorly maintained, and unsafe. The local community development corporation sees the new park as a cornerstone of its vision for revitalization of a commercial area, an expression of local culture, and the focal point of a neighborhood safety campaign. The local health clinic and county public health agency seek the park as a means to encourage exercise and recreation, especially among the alarming number of overweight children and youth. Local environmental justice groups see the transformation of a former waterfront industrial site into a park as the appropriate remedy for the history of neglect exemplified by such brownfields. And, a national nonprofit park development organization uses the opportunity to generate a larger share of state infrastructure bond funds for this kind of urban project, in contrast to its main prior application for wilderness conservation. This composite picture is representative of an initiative in Oakland, California,1 but in its general form it is probably recognizable in many U.S. cities, where efforts to build or revive urban parks have taken on these varied partners and sources of motivation and support. As we examine the four dimensions of the urban greening movement, they will often seem to intertwine closely in support of the same kinds of open spaces, enterprises, and cultural projects. That synergy is becoming one of the overall movement’s most promising assets. Copyright © 2008 University of Pennsylvania Press.
Growing Greener Cities: Urban Sustainability in The Twenty-First Century