CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 828Environmental Justice and Health DisparitiesUrban Green Space and HealthUrban Planning and Governance

Parks and People: An Environmental Justice Inquiry in Baltimore, Maryland

Boone, Christopher G., Buckley, Geoffrey L., Grove, J. Morgan, Sister, Chona·2009·Annals of the Association of American Geographers
DOI 10.1080/00045600903102949
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

This article examines the distribution of parks in Baltimore, Maryland, as an environmental justice issue. In addition to established methods for measuring distribution of and access to parks, we employ a novel park service area approach that uses Thiessen polygons and dasymetric reapportioning of census data to measure potential park congestion as an equity outcome measure. We find that a higher proportion of African Americans have access to parks within walking distance, defined as 400 meters or less, than whites, but whites have access to more acreage of parks within walking distance than blacks. A needs-based assessment shows that areas with the highest need have the best access to parks but also have access to less acreage of parks compared to low-need areas. Park service areas that are predominantly black have higher park congestion than areas that are predominantly white, although differences are less apparent at the city level than at the metropolitan level. Following Iris Young and others, we argue that conceptions of justice must move beyond distributive justice and address the social and institutional mechanisms that generate inequities. For Baltimore, we examine how segregation ordinances, racial covenants, improvement associations, the Home Owners Loan Corporation, and the Parks and Recreation Board created separate black spaces historically underserved with parks. These mechanisms ultimately fueled middle-class flight and suburbanization and black inheritance of…

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1080/00045600903102949

Cites

152 of 152 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • In New York, the creation of official SMIAs in 1992 has resulted in the further siting and clustering of environmental hazards in predominantly low-income communities of color.

    “In New York, the creation of official SMIAs in 1992 has resulted in the further siting and clustering of environmental hazards in predominantly low-income communities of color.”

    From NPCC4: Advancing climate justice in climate adaptation strategies for New York City (2024) · cites this paper as [172]

  • All six SMIAs are in hurricane storm surge zones, leading to greater risks for residents in these neighborhoods.

    “One study finds that all six 3 SMIAs are in hurricane storm surge zones, leading to greater risks for residents in these neighborhoods.172”

    From NPCC4: Advancing climate justice in climate adaptation strategies for New York City (2024) · cites this paper as [172]

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 27

  1. Baynes L., 1985, History of Patterson Park
  2. Been V., 1997, Ecology Law Quarterly, 24, 1
  3. Board of Park Commissioners, 1927, Public parks of Baltimore
  4. Bolin B., 2005, Human Ecology Review, 12, 156
  5. Boone C. G., 2003, Historical Geography, 31, 151
  6. Buckley G. L., 2006, Historical Geography, 34, 87
  7. City of Baltimore, 1967, A parks and recreation plan for the City of Baltimore
  8. Ewing R., 2004, Transportation Planning and Analysis, 1895, 55
  9. Haines M. R., Historical, demographic, economic, and social data: The United States, 1790–2000, Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research Database 2896
  10. Harnik P., 2004, Planning, 9
  11. Harvey D., 1985, The urbanization of capital
  12. Home Owners Loan Corporation, 1937, Records of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, Home Owners' Loan Corporation: Records relating to the City Survey File, 1935–40
  13. Kessler B., 1989, The playlife of a city: Baltimore's recreation and parks, 1900–1955
  14. Korth C. A., 2006, The Olmstedian, 16
  15. Mount Royal Improvement Association, 1930, The Mount Royal District: Baltimore's best urban section: Dolphin Street to Druid Hill Park between Mount Royal Ave. and Eutaw Place
  16. Peabody Heights Improvement Association, Meeting minutes, 1909–1933, Books 1 and 2
  17. Pelton T., 2007, Arsenic forces closing of park
  18. Power G., 1983, Maryland Law Review, 42, 289
  19. Reid I. D. A., 1935, The negro community of Baltimore: A summary report of a social study conducted for the Baltimore Urban League
  20. Sister C., 2007, The Green Visions Plan for 21st century Southern California. 15. Park congestion and strategies to increase park equity
  21. South Baltimore Improvement Association, 1938, Souvenir book of the Sesqui-Centennial Celebration of Federal Hill
  22. The Trust for Public Land, 2004, No place to play: A comparative analysis of park access in seven major cities
  23. Tuason J., 1997, Historical Geography, 25, 124
  24. U.S. Bureau of Census, 1942, United States census of population, 1940
  25. U.S. Bureau of Census, 1952, United States census of population, 1950
  26. U.S. Census Bureau, 2000, American FactFinder
  27. Zucker K., 1995, Maryland Historical Magazine, 90, 72

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Boone, C. G., Buckley, G. L., Grove, J. M., & Sister, C.
Affiliations
  • Arizona State University (US)
  • Ohio University (US)
  • US Forest Service (US)
ORCID
Venue
Annals of the Association of American Geographers
Publisher
Informa UK Limited
Published
2009-09-04
Volume
99
Issue
4
Pages
767-787
ISSN
  • 0004-5608 (ISSN-L)
  • 1467-8306
DOI
10.1080/00045600903102949
OpenAlex
W1997617500
Semantic Scholar
ef583ed3235b3144474283accd83d738c66dde51
Cited by
828
References
151
Citations by year
2026: 61 · 2025: 60 · 2024: 73 · 2023: 81 · 2022: 86 · 2021: 68 · 2020: 63 · 2019: 64 · 2018: 51 · 2017: 43 · 2016: 34 · 2015: 30 · 2014: 35 · 2013: 17 · 2012: 30
FWCI
68.20
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
Annals of the Association of American Geographers (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Environmental Justice and Health Disparities
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Urban Green Space and Health
  • Social Sciences › Urban Studies › Urban Planning and Governance
Keywords
environmental justice, park accessibility, urban parks, Baltimore, racial segregation, Voronoi tessellation, African Americans, walking distance, suburbanization, racist covenants, Home Owners' Loan Corporation, Iris Marion Young, distributive justice

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review