Pamela Anchang | The Immigrant Magazine

At a time when American communities are more polarized than ever, urban parks are emerging as unlikely but vital bridges.

This powerful reality was underscored during a May 2025 ACoM (American Community Media) briefing, where the Trust for Public Land unveiled its latest ParkScore report. What the data revealed is that parks, beyond being places of recreation, are civic sanctuaries, spaces of healing and among the last places where Americans still connect across lines of difference.

The briefing brought together leaders on the frontlines of reimagining public space: Will Klein, director of parks research at the Trust for Public Land (TPL); Guillermo Rodriguez, California state director at TPL; Justin Cutler, parks and recreation commissioner of Atlanta; and Yvette Lopez-Ledesma, a fellow at Greening America’s Cities.

Parks have long been cherished for their role in recreation, but Klein’s national polling revealed something more urgent: parks are becoming social lifelines. Over half of Americans say they spoke with someone from a different economic or cultural background while visiting a park — an increasingly rare act in today’s divided society.

“Regardless of political affiliation,” Klein noted, “people still believe in parks. They are some of the least polarized spaces left in America.”

A striking 86% of Trump voters and 83% of Biden voters reported feeling comfortable in their local park—underscoring parks’ unique power to unify.

Klein shared a story from Panorama Park in Colorado Springs, where a blighted lot once covered in weeds and broken glass was transformed into a thriving park through a four-year community-led design process.

“Now there are trees, fitness stations, sports fields and laughter,” he said. “That story is repeating itself across the country.”

What makes this transformation remarkable is the way local residents like Andre Dunn described the change.

“We used to avoid this park. Now it feels like home,” Dunn said. “I bring my kids, and we see people from everywhere. That never happened before.”

Atlanta and Los Angeles

In Atlanta, Commissioner Justin Cutler described how the city used schoolyards as a strategic solution to park access inequity.

With support from organizations like Kaboom and the Children and Nature Network, Atlanta signed a joint use agreement with its public schools. This allowed all playgrounds and fields to open after hours — a move that raised the city’s ParkScore and saved the school district over $500,000 in use fees.

“Before this agreement, many kids had nowhere safe to play after school,” Cutler said. “Now we’re unlocking our assets for public good.”

He shared the transformative impact of Cook Park in Vine City, a historically Black neighborhood once ravaged by flooding. Designed with stormwater infrastructure built into the park, Cook Park absorbed floodwaters from Hurricane Helene that would have otherwise destroyed homes.

“Three days after the storm, it looked like nothing happened,” Cutler recalled. “That’s the power of intentional design and listening to community.”

Cook Park was made possible through years of community mapping exercises, design workshops and grassroots advocacy. One such leader, Carrie Salvery, attended every planning meeting. Today, she chairs the board of the Alliance for Cook Park, working alongside the city’s tourism bureau, banks and small businesses.

“It’s not just about the trees or trails,” Salvery said. “It’s about what the park means to us. It’s about voice.”

Meanwhile, Los Angeles tells a more sobering story. The city has dropped to 90th in the ParkScore rankings. Over 1.5 million Angelenos lack walkable park access. The city hasn’t updated its master parks plan since 1973, when Tom Bradley was mayor.

“LA’s numbers don’t reflect a failure of imagination,” said Guillermo Rodriguez of TPL. “They reflect decades of underinvestment and a lack of equitable planning.”

Still, there are signs of hope. A new Park Needs Assessment is underway, with community voices guiding its direction. And groups like the Southeast Asian Community Alliance are pushing for development that doesn’t displace the very people parks are meant to serve.

Rodriguez stressed the importance of not just building parks, but protecting the communities around them.

“Green gentrification is real,” he said. “We have to ensure equity and housing protections go hand in hand with greening our neighborhoods.”

The LA River

The LA River, once seen as a concrete channel of neglect, is now the site of ambitious plans to reconnect 51 miles of urban waterways to surrounding neighborhoods. Yvette Lopez-Ledesma emphasized the dual promise and peril of these plans.

“Revitalizing the river can reconnect people to nature,” she said. “But without protections, we risk pushing out long-standing residents.”

Community partners are now calling for stronger anti-displacement measures, local hiring for green jobs and greater investment in park maintenance.

“People need to see their tax dollars create long-term care, not just pretty renderings,” she added.

What’s at stake

The panel also addressed looming threats: Potential federal budget cuts to grants for urban forestry and infrastructure.

Klein warned that it took 17 years for park funding to recover after the 2008 recession, and they couldn’t afford a repeat.

But there’s also opportunity.

“We’re seeing record-high investment in parks nationally,” Klein noted. “And most of it is coming from local leaders, not Washington.”

Cities like Fort Worth, Texas, which rose 20 spots in the ParkScore rankings this year, are proving what’s possible when parks are prioritized. Through public-private partnerships, Fort Worth launched the Good Natured Green Space Initiative, aiming to preserve 10,000 acres in five years. This came after the city realized it was losing 50 acres of open space every week.

“The urgency forced our hand,” said one city planner. “But once we saw what we could do together, it became a movement.”

This story was produced by American Community Media in collaboration with the Laboratory for Environmental Narrative Strategies (LENS) at UCLA as part of the Greening American Cities initiative supported by the Bezos Earth Fund. Read more stories like this by visiting the Greening Communities homepage.