National Park(ing) Day Spotlights Park-Poor L.A.

This Friday is National Park(ing) Day.

Sponsored by the Trust for Public Land, Park(ing) Day is an opportunity to celebrate parks in cities and promote the need for more parks by creating temporary public parks in public parking spaces. More than 400 temporary parks in 70 different cities are expected to appear in a parking space near you.

Park(ing) Day is a superficially apt name considering the amount of time Angeleos spend parked on LA freeways. However, the juxtaposition of 'urban parking lots' and 'green space parks' cuts a great deal deeper. According to data from USC's Green Visions Plan study, the poorer parts of Los Angeles are some of the most park-poor in the US. They're severely lacking smaller, quality neighborhood parks and passive recreation opportunities that a RAND Corporation study found to be heavily preferred by most Angelenos, regardless of race and economic factors.

The Department of Recreation and Parks was in the public input stage of a much-needed citywide Needs Assessment process to address this dearth of green space when they were broadsided by the Mayor and City Clowncil -- RAP was slapped with the highest budget cut of any department in the City (17%). For the last two years, Rec and Parks had been recovering from nearly two decades of being gutted by politicians and poor management. This latest cut clearly spotlights the Mayor's and City Clowncil's utter disrespect for the need of all Angelenos to recreate and relax.

In fact, each year in recent memory, the Mayor hasn't just cut Rec and Parks' budget, but has placed it on more and more unstable footing by increasing the percentage that comes directly from the General Fund. For 2008-09, Mayor Villar felt that no one would notice if he put roughly 80% of Rec and Parks' funding -- an all-time high -- at serious risk by forcing it to rely on the health of the General Fund.

Since the General Fund relies on City sales and property taxes which are substantially lower now during this economic downturn, it's likely that the 17% cut will end up far deeper in reality .


So just how many Los Angeles Park(ing) Day parking lot parks will be drawing attention to the criminal lack of parks, park space, and parks funding in Los Angeles? Go to Parking Day LA's web site to find out or to register your "park" and help bring attention to Los Angeles's parks issues.