The Trust for Public Land (TPL) creates parks and protects land for people, ensuring healthy, livable communities for generations to come. The goal of TPL’s Parks for People Program is to ensure that everyone can access a quality park within a 10-minute walk, or half-mile, from home. We use the 10-minute walk as a benchmark because it is a manageable distance for seniors and children, ensuring access for all.

Across Southern California, TPL has created over a dozen parks, more than forty outdoor gyms, and Los Angeles’ first green alley network. The program has been recognized for its commitment to equity and sustainability and for excellence in design. To amplify our impact, we develop research, tools, and public funding that support our mission. We led the development of the GIS-based Climate Smart Cities—Los Angeles Decision Support Tool to help cities and stakeholders equitably meet the climate crises. We helped craft and pass Measure A and Proposition 68, the largest parks measures in the history of Los Angeles and California, respectively. Altogether, vibrant green spaces created by TPL benefit more than half a million people across the region!

The Los Angeles Parks for People Program is currently working on 10 projects across LA County. These projects range from an Urban Orchard in South Gate to expanding an urban greenway in Reseda, to many more in between. Once complete, the public green spaces currently under development by TPL in Los Angeles County will serve more than 106,000 residents, including more than 35,000 children, residing within a 10-minute walk of them (TPL Park Equity Tool 2021).

Over the past year, the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic continued to impact our work, most notably from the global supply chain disruptions that caused delays for our projects in California and nationwide and increased funding costs. Even with these setbacks, our project teams across the country connected with new donors and community partners to successfully preserve 47 new public lands totaling to 126,862.46 acres. TPL also created 22 parks, bringing an additional 269,601 people within a 10-minute walk of a high quality park or open space. On March 18th, TPL will officially open its next green space in LA County, the Central Jefferson and Quincy Jones Green Alleys!

(L) Bradley Green Alleys; (R) Equipo Verde team from the Avalon Green Alley Project

These alley projects were initially supported with a planning grant from LA2050 in 2014, and the TPL team is thrilled to see these important projects become a reality. In fact, a recent article in Curbed highlighted how L.A.’s ‘Green Alley’ Experiments Are Working!

In the past year, we have also made exciting strides with our new green schoolyard in partnership with the LAUSD and the Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department. We also helped to establish the LA Living Schoolyards Coalition, a partnership of LA-based organizations focused on schoolyard greening and neighborhood resilience. The partnership is pursuing multiple strategies to achieve districtwide change: conducting research and outreach, advising on school board policy, building pilot schoolyards, developing design guidelines and curriculum, and applying for public funding. With features like learning gardens, nature play areas, and outdoor classrooms, green schoolyards boost health, education, and climate resilience for students and whole communities.

At our pilot project, Camino Nuevo Charter Academy Jose A. Castellanos Elementary School, progress is already underway in converting an acre of asphalt into thriving place to learn, with a multi-use field, shade trees and an outdoor classroom. On March 13th, TPL hosted a groundbreaking ceremony at the schoolyard where students, parents, teachers, community partners and officials, could celebrate the next step in this momentous project. Construction is set to finish early next school year.

TPL is looking forward to the continued expansion of green open space in Los Angeles County and we are grateful for LA2050’s support of our work greening schoolyards, alleys, and parks across Los Angeles through TPL’s Los Angeles Parks for People Program!