More school-based parks could increase access, equity

Moms holding their kids' hands trudged along a footpath, heading home from school to one of the apartment complexes lining a stretch of Spears Road in northwest Harris County. Whatever lay ahead for these children for the rest of the day - homework, dinner, TV, playing with friends - it's doubtful that a visit to a park was on the agenda.

The nearest public park to this spot is more than 2 miles way, at Kaiser Elementary School in the Klein school district, according to a map developed by the nonprofit Trust for Public Land. Kaiser participates in SPARK, a program that makes school playgrounds available for public use after school and on weekends.

This site, near the intersection of Spears Road and Veterans Memorial Drive, ranked third among Harris County locations outside the city of Houston in the Trust for Public Land's assessment of "optimum new park locations" - places where parks are most needed. The analysis took into account not just the proximity of parks, but factors like the number of children in the neighborhood and the residents' income levels.

'Not as well served'

I learned about this research when Ernest Cook, the trust's senior vice president and conservation director, contacted me after reading my May 10 column about access to parks in greater Houston. The column noted that Houston's vast suburban areas were seeing relatively few benefits from the philanthropy supporting spectacular new green spaces like Buffalo Bayou Park and Discovery Green.

"Generally, it's true that neighborhoods outside the city are not as well served as those in the city," Cook told me.

The trust's analysis of parks in Harris County, funded by a grant from Houston Endowment, will be a model for similar work in cities around the country, Cook said. Local governments and nonprofit agencies can use the data to help determine where they should focus their resources.

SPARK parks could be an important tool in the effort to improve Houston's ranking for park accessibility. In 2015, Houston ranked 58th out of 75 cities studied by the Trust for Public Land; just 45 percent of Houston residents had access to a park within a half mile, a distance considered walkable.

Working together

Created in 1983, SPARK was the brainchild of then-City Councilwoman Eleanor Tinsley, who died in 2009. Tinsley, a former school board member, was keen on intergovernmental cooperation, recalled her former aide, Madeleine Appel. Using school playgrounds as public parks was a way "to get the city and the county and the school district to work together," Appel told me.

The late councilwoman and her staff chose five schools to kick off the program. Today, 33 years later, more than 200 schools participate, according to the group's website.

It would be easier for the families living in the apartment developments on Spears Road to get to Claughton Middle School, just down the street. But Claughton doesn't have a SPARK park.

The SPARK program has never recruited schools, according to Kathleen Ownby, who runs the nonprofit that oversees the program. (Ownby is Eleanor Tinsley's daughter.) Instead, the program has worked with schools whose leaders asked to be included. This strategy has been driven in part by conditions attached to federal funds that pay for improvements - new playground equipment, benches, picnic tables and other amenities. Generally, these funds are limited to low-income neighborhoods.

"We have never focused before on the 'park desert' theme," Ownby told me, although the approach may soon change.

Access: 1 in 7

The Trust for Public Land's study found that about one in seven Houston residents, or 317,000 people, had access to a SPARK Park. Eighty-six percent of the users surveyed said the school playground was the primary park they visited.

This was certainly true of my family during the more than 25 years we lived a few blocks from the SPARK park at Travis Elementary School in Woodland Heights. My daughter spent countless evenings enjoying the playground equipment while my wife and I walked around the track, and many a birthday party included some time playing "Red Rover."

A school playground, of course, isn't Discovery Green. But SPARK parks can be a valuable part of a strategy to increase access to green spaces throughout the Houston area, and to distribute them more equitably. I imagine the kids in those apartments on Spears Road would be happy to have one nearby.