Parks and young people: An environmental justice study of park proximity, acreage, and quality in Denver, Colorado

•Different parameters describing park access: proximity, acreage, and quality.•Use of a youth-centered index to measure park quality.•Partial equity for park proximity, advantaging low-income and ethnic minority people.•Strong inequities for park acreage per 1000 youth, excellent parks, and safe parks.•Analyses of park proximity, acreage, and quality can inform planning decisions.

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.