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Why green infrastructure is critical to bringing racial and health equity to communities
When Art Ochoa looks out across the fields behind Chiloquin Elementary School in Oregon, he sees more than dead grass and dilapidated monkey bars. "I see my home. This was my childhood."
As a member of the Klamath Tribes, who have made their homes in the region since time immemorial, Ochoa's connection to the place goes back before his childhood. Growing up, he sat in these same classrooms and played on this same equipment. "It probably looked a little bit newer back then," he says with a wry chuckle. "But it was what we had." Now, 50 years later, Ochoa and The Trust for Public Land are leading a collaborative network to build a green schoolyard at Chiloquin Elementary. The old play-
ground equipment will be replaced by new, nature-based elements designed to inspire the imagination and encourage physical activity, the cracked blacktop will be resurfaced, and a blacktop cover will be added to ensure kids can still get out and play during the snowy winter months. During non-school hours, the schoolyard will double as a public park that is open to the community and serves as a safe space for socializing and gathering. The intention is to create a safe place for kids to recreate, and project partners have higher hopes for the schoolyard, too. In a community that has faced systemic racism, economic collapse and stark health disparities, the green schoolyard represents a step toward a healthier, more equitable future.
Community Health and Parks
In the United States, health experts believe that your zip code can help them better predict your health outcomes than your genetic code (tinyurl.com/y917tgdx). The social determinants of health - things like air and water quality access to healthy foods and steady employment - follow trends at neighborhood levels (tinyurl.com/ y3xdjrd5). If you live close to a busy freeway with only a few trees to help collect particulate matter from the air, you and your neighbors are more likely to develop asthma and breathing issues than people across town who live in tree-lined suburbs.
That's a significant problem in a country with a long history of segregation and discrimination. In fact, our history is precisely...