Recreational Justice and City Planning

Romero, Ana. Recreational Justice and City Planning. Master of Public Health (Environmental), August 2006, 70 pp., 14 tables, 3 illustrations, 4 maps, bibliography, 42 titles. Environmental justice has been defined by the unfairly exposure of minorities to hazardous materials, in this study we consider another aspect of environmental justice by analysis de exposure of population to beneficial sources for the environment. Population living around 1 mile from the parks of the cities of Dallas, Plano, Midlothian and McKinney were analyzed base on descriptive statistics, compare of means among and within the city by an analysis of variance, and a distance prediction on demographics characteristic of race/ethnicity, age, economics, and education obtained from the U.S. census of 2000. Plano and Dallas have 98% and 97% population coverage; this resulted in statistical significant differences in all demographics McKinney and Midlothian reported less than 78% of coverage with only education as significant predictor of distance. Recreational justice does not substitute environmental justice; however it should be considered to evaluate this condition.