Race, poverty, and space: A spatial intersectional approach to equity of urban park access

While earlier studies of environmental justice have empirically assessed in(equity) in urban park access, they have typically considered race/ethnicity and wealth factors separately as determinants of (in)equitable urban park access. However, this approach ignores the intersectional socioeconomic categories when identifying marginalized groups. Furthermore, there has been little research that visualized the spatially heterogeneous (in)equity of access to urban parks from an intersectional perspective on sociodemographic categories across communities. To address these research gaps, this study examined the spatially heterogeneous intersectionality of the socioeconomic categories of race and poverty (e.g., White poverty, African American poverty, and Asian poverty), in terms of access to urban parks across 784 census tracts in the Detroit Metropolitan Area. The findings showed that African American and Asian poverty groups had equitable access to urban parks. Furthermore, spatially heterogeneous (in)equitable urban park access was observed among intersectional minority groups. Such findings can be useful for park administrators in the Detroit Metropolitan Area seeking to distribute resources to neighborhoods that need increased access to urban parks.