In this blog post, go straight to the heart of the human impact of public spaces and examine how parks function as public health infrastructure, combat the epidemic of social isolation, and foster inclusive communities where everyone feels a sense of belonging.
Think about the last time you felt completely overwhelmed and went for a walk with a friend in a park or took your kids to the playground just to let them burn off some energy. The COVID-19 pandemic proved what we already knew: parks are essential for our bodies, our minds, and our social connections.
Yet, as a society, we don’t fund them like the healthcare powerhouses they are. Research presented by Dr. Deborah Cohen, who studies how environmental factors influence community health, illustrates a stark national gap. In 2022, the 100 largest U.S. cities spent an average of just $126 per person on parks and recreation, with only about $37.59 going to activities and $63.11 to keep the lights on and grass cut.
Meanwhile, U.S. healthcare spending skyrocketed to $13,493 per person, more than a hundredfold higher.
To bridge this gap, city leaders are integrating parks directly into public health models and turning them into frontline wellness centers. Facing high rates of obesity and chronic illness, the City of Brownsville, TX, partnered with the UTHealth School of Public Health and the Tu Salud ¡Sí Cuenta! initiative. Together, they expanded fitness classes, brought fresh produce to local neighborhoods through markets, and helped families learn the ins and outs of good nutrition. As a result, park visits for health activities rose by 35%, distribution of fresh produce at markets increased by 20%, and 90% of participants reported improved nutrition knowledge.
We are also seeing incredible partnerships where doctors and park staff team up to treat patients outside the clinic walls.
Through a collaboration between Project Nature, The Trust for Public Land, Parks Tacoma, and Pediatrics NW, pediatricians in Washington state are now writing “park prescriptions,” prescribing time in nature directly to children as part of everyday care. Incorporating time outdoors into routine healthcare helps kids of all ages feel better, build healthier habits, and reconnect with nature.
Concrete medical centers are being transformed into green spaces. In Boston, MA, the Longwood Collective created an Open Space Resilience Framework in the middle of the Longwood Medical Area. They are planting massive tree canopies, building rain gardens to capture stormwater, and ensuring new construction projects include plazas where patients, visitors, doctors, and nurses can actually step outside and breathe. The South Texas Medical Center in San Antonio is undergoing a similar makeover, transforming a rigid, institutional campus into a walkable, welcoming space directly connected to the neighborhood.
Across the U.S., loneliness poses a serious threat to public health. According to the CDC, approximately 1 in 3 U.S. adults report feeling lonely, and 1 in 4 say they lack critical social and emotional support. Americans are also increasingly isolated socioeconomically and by political preference.
At our Greater & Greener Keynote, sponsored by the Knight Foundation, the Foundation’s VP for Community Impact, Francesca de Quesada Covey, sat down with NYU sociologist and author Eric Klinenberg and The Longest Table co-founder Maryam Banikarim to discuss the role of parks in social cohesion and how they serve as vital social infrastructure to bring people from all walks of life together.
As Eric explained, social infrastructure means the physical places, such as parks, libraries, playgrounds, and plazas, that shape how we interact with each other. While tech corporations spend billions to keep people glued to screens, well-designed public spaces offer a physical alternative that fosters “collective effervescence,” trust, and community resilience. Everyday activities like pushing a child on a playground swing or playing pickup basketball break down isolation and build organic social ties.
Maryam shared how grassroots projects like The Longest Table and NYC Next, which bring neighbors face-to-face over shared meals and community art, can build the trust essential for solving big, complex problems together. She emphasized that trust is built in physical spaces, not online. Bringing people into shared public spaces helps residents regain a sense of personal agency and connection.
A park isn’t public if everyone can’t enjoy it. Making parks truly welcoming requires accessible, inclusive design and a deep respect for history.
In a mobile workshop on Universal Design and Adaptive Recreation, accessibility advocates explored practical ADA implementations and introduced participants to Birdability, an organization dedicated to making birding accessible and safe for people with disabilities.
Cities are getting creative with space by opening public spaces after hours and reinterpreting historical sites. In Austin, Oakwood Cemetery serves as a site for historic interpretation, community dialogue, memory, and healing.
Parks can also be places to honor diverse legacies. Visits during our mobile workshop to Austin’s Rosewood Neighborhood Park and Parque Zaragoza, among the few publicly funded recreational areas historically available to Black and Latino communities in the city, examined the history of racial segregation through the stories of longtime residents.
Public spaces are the bedrock of our civic lives, places for protest, assembly, and collective healing. A peer conversation on integrating civic expression into public space systems examined how we can design spaces that naturally protect the right to assemble to strengthen public trust and accountability.
Ensuring that parks actually serve the community’s needs and engaging residents in their stewardship requires intentional collaboration.
Leaders from Philadelphia’s Mifflin Square Park shared how their unique community collaboration with families from over 77 countries and speaking more than 55 languages has become a national model for designing a park with the community and ensuring that everyone has a voice in shaping it.
During a mobile workshop, the Austin Parks and Recreation Department shared the Partnership Policy and Framework it created to ensure transparency, equity, and collaboration with hundreds of community “PARKners” to transform former industrial sites into parks and urban food forests.
Beyond grant stacking, agencies are leveraging technology to realize operational efficiencies. The Atlanta Department of Parks and Recreation, an Alliance member, is integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) into daily operations, streamlining program registration, permitting, and public inquiries to meet growing demand without overloading staff.
In times of fiscal austerity, parks are often treated as non-essential “niceties” and are among the first budget items to be cut. This is especially acute in post-industrial cities where declining populations and reduced municipal tax revenue can leave large park footprints underfunded, resulting in crippling deferred maintenance over time.
To defend park budgets, leaders at Greater & Greener discussed advocacy efforts such as using maintenance data to educate elected officials, building ballot-measure campaigns for dedicated local park taxes, and keeping community advocates engaged for the long haul.
When fiscal austerity threatens park budgets, cross-sector coalitions can also turn crisis into opportunity. In New York City, after pandemic-related declines in private giving threatened park conservancies, City Parks Foundation and 45 peer organizations formed the Parks and Open Space Partners coalition. Together, they raised $8 million for the NYC Green Relief & Recovery Fund to deliver emergency grants to grassroots groups across all five boroughs.
When we invest in city parks, we are investing directly in public health, social cohesion, and democratic infrastructure.
Keep building your toolkit for healthy, inclusive parks with these City Parks Alliance resources:
Whether you couldn’t make it to Austin or want to relive the experience, you can watch recordings of our general sessions and browse the photo gallery.