The Results of Unequal Access to Green Spaces

Walking in the woods

Source: Jasmin Tahmaseb McConatha

Several years ago, I moved to a new home across the street from a large park where I walk almost every day. During my walks, I have come to know my close neighbors and the people who live in my community. This home is not as conveniently located to my job or my family, and the taxes are higher than where I lived before. Even so, I made a conscious choice that time outside walking and biking in conveniently accessible green space was on the top of my list of priorities.

For me, the financial and temporal sacrifices I’ve made enable me to take advantage of proximate green space. In my neighborhood, I do not have to join a gym, I can take in fresh air as I walk. For many years, I have written about the healing power of nature. But during the past two years, my appreciation of outdoor physical and social activity in green spaces has increased exponentially. During the dark months of the pandemic, the capacity to walk outside, and chat with neighbors has been a physical and psychological life-saver. During those pandemic times, I also wondered about people, of which there are many, who are not able to enjoy nature’s physical and psychological benefits.

For many adults, especially older adults, there are no options for a safe walk in a natural setting. It is no wonder that the majority of older women and men do not exercise regularly. For those who do, walking is a popular form of physical activity. Walking is also one of the least costly, damaging, and most accessible forms of activity. Walking also has the added benefit of potentially resulting in social engagement combating feelings of loneliness and isolation.

Park Bench

Source: Jasmin Tahmaseb McConatha

My students and I have been conducting research that explores factors that encourage and motivate older women and men to walk outdoors. We and others have found that considerable inequalities exist in the access to parks, tree-covered streets, gardens, clean air, and the cooler climates that result (Volkwein-Caplan & Tahmaseb-McConatha, 2018). Clearly, the potential health benefits of green spaces are not available to everyone. An analysis of the research, as well as an ethnographic study of several neighborhoods, indicates that environmental inequality is widespread. Community resources appear to be much more readily available to middle- and upper-middle-class Americans. Green coverage, clean parks, lighting, trees, and bushes are more plentiful in more prosperous neighborhoods.

Poorer communities, communities of color, and communities with a higher concentration of older residents do not appear to have the same quality of green coverage. Monetary wealth, apparently, shapes how much green space is available in neighborhoods (Grinspan, Pool, Trivedi, Anderson, & Bouye, 2020). Studies that have explored green space-related resources in various communities have also found that in communities with predominantly minority and immigrant residents, there are fewer forests, parks, streams, and natural spaces available (Rowland-Shea, Edberg, Doshi, & Fanger, 2020).

The history of discriminatory practices, such as "red-lining" is well known. What is surprising is the long-lasting consequences of these discriminatory practices continue to reveal themselves in the accessibility of green space. These conditions still negatively impact the abilities of older men and women to promote their well-being. For people who wish to age at home, to continue to live in homes and communities where they have spent their lives, they can only do so if resources exist for them to meet their basic needs safely and comfortably. Well-being is shaped in a social and cultural context. Among the many factors that impact well-being, access to green spaces should be prioritized. Green coverage, vegetation, and tree coverage help to filter the air and to maintain microsystems (Shukla, 2020).

Other benefits of having access to green space include an increase in life satisfaction, emotional management, and overall physical health (Neill, Gerard, & Arbuthnott, 2019). Unfortunately, studies have also found that “nature deprivation” is all too common in neighborhoods, particularly neighborhoods of color, adding one factor to those that result in higher rates of chronic health conditions, such as heart disease, asthma, and type 2 Diabetes (Tahmaseb McConatha, Kumar, Raymond, & Akwarandu, 2020).

In 2017, there were 962 million adults 60 and older in the world. This number is expected to double in the next 30 years. As the world ages, it becomes increasingly important to address the ways that older men and women of all backgrounds can promote their well-being. If access to public green spaces can help keep a percentage of elders more active and socially engaged, while at the same time helping the planet, this appears to be a relatively manageable resource for community planners. Sometimes there are easy relatively inexpensive changes that make significant differences: improved lighting, placement of benches, cleaning up dead shrubs and flowers, placing informative signs in multiple languages.

There are, of course, many factors impacting health and well-being. As the world ages, it becomes crucial to focus on building and maintaining usable, safe, natural environments where residents of all ages can engage in physical and social activities.