Park Availability and Expenditure Effects on Crime, Poverty, Wealth and Obesity Indicators

Urban parks play an important role in cities. Lack of understanding about their effects on urban dwellers and their capacity to play a role in promoting social well-being could diminish their benefits. With population growth in cities, park managers may need to increase the quantity and quality or diversify parks to achieve the same results. The relationship between availability and expenditure on parks and urban quality of life has received little research attention. An analysis of 75 US cities determined that park density, operational expenditure and park acreage as a percentage of the city are significantly related to average levels of income, obesity and violent crimes. Optimum park density is 49 people per acre of park. Violent crime is a key determinant of whether urban parks generate a virtuous cycle improving health and income and reducing obesity rates or a vicious cycle achieving the contrary.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Oregon

Year dc:date.issued

2010

Author dc:creator

• Salas, Javier Antonio, 1982-

• Urban parks
• Parks

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1794/10693

OAI record oai:identifier

https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/server/oai/request?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=dim&identifier=oai%3Ascholarsbank.uoregon.edu%3A1794%2F10693