City leaders and grassroots groups across America are trying to improve the quality of urban life. These campaigns result in urban renewal projects which often feature “top down” large-scale projects that serve as the anchor for a variety of smaller improvements throughout the city. Newark is no exception. But many of Newark’s children live on streets that have not seen new park space open up for years, and existing parks are often too far to be walkable in a city where owning a car is not a given.

The Goal is a Healthy City (00:57)

Some of America’s largest cities could once boast great park areas, borne out of a belief that people could not survive without open space and the connection to the natural world provided by a surrounding of trees or a quiet pond. Eventually, cities in decline could not commit to keeping park space or adding any new space despite growing numbers of citizens. In Newark, building new parks to improve neighborhood conditions remained unheard of throughout much of the latter half of the twentieth century. Now Newark’s ratio of park space to people is one of the lowest in the nation, with less than three acres of park land per 1,000 residents. Cities like New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles all average at least seven acres per 1,000 residents.