Who can walk? An analysis of public amenity access in America’s ten largest cities

Abstract

How uneven is the proximity to public amenities like libraries and schools among racial groups, or children and older people? This paper uses a catchment area approach to evaluate walkable proximity to four common public amenities (parks, libraries, schools, and transit stops), looking at four racial categories and a set of variables that one might reasonably expect proximity to be related to (e.g., population density). For each of the 10 largest US cities examined, location quotients for each amenity (libraries, parks, schools, and transit stops) were calculated at three distances (0.25 miles, 0.5 miles, and 1 mile). Across all amenities, the racial group whose LQ had the greatest increase when comparing net median change between distance bands (i.e., between .25 miles and 1 mile) was Black Americans. There were large differences between the location quotient means and medians in non-White racial groups for each amenity, indicating a large amount of skew. In most cities and with most amenities, the difference between mean and median was considerably smaller in White populations, indicating a more normal curve and fewer outliers. Proximity, in other words, seems to be more homogenous in White populations. The LQs were also significantly higher in White populations across cities. Further, in all cities except Los Angeles, Asian populations were generally the most under-represented group for each catchment area around each amenity. The fact that non-White residents predominantly had lower LQs and therefore lower access (with some exceptions, for example, in the case of schools) is a generalized and problematic finding that adds to the body of evidence documenting the spatial injustices that American cities continue to manifest.