The City of Atlanta recently advanced a single position to 42nd out of 100 in The Trust for Public Land’s ParkScore index, a move due in part to the increase in the number of residents who live within a 10-minute walk of a park – 66% last year to 71% this year.
While we’re moving in the right direction, time is not on our side. Efforts to increase park access will get more challenging as development pressures increase, tree canopy is lost, and land acquisition gets more expensive.
For our part, Park Pride is working with partners on the Atlanta Community Schoolyards initiative to increase access to schoolyards outside school hours. We’re also building a new park, Kathryn Johnston Memorial Park, with partners in English Avenue.
Momentum is building among government leaders too. Atlanta Parks Commissioner John Dargle, Jr. has taken on the challenge to do more for park access, park maintenance, and the protection of our urban forest.
Additionally, in 2018 Mayor Bottoms signed onto the vision that “everyone deserves a park within a 10-minute walk of home,” a commitment which she reiterated at the 2019 Parks and Greenspace Conference.
Taken with the increase in Atlanta’s parks budget, these are signs of positive change. But we need you to help make it happen. Are you with us?
Email rachel@parkpride.org to receive Park Pride’s advocacy e-newsletters.