Direct Design Assistance: Parkshed and Park Access Map, Trust for Public Land, Twin Cities, MN

The Trust for Public Land is an organization committed to creating and preserving urban green space. In these projects, Design Center staff built on the work of the Design Center's earlier Taking Notice to produce a series of maps highlighting Twin Cities populations with low mobility and poor access to parks. These maps help focus attention on places where there is a high need for parks.

Phase 2: July 2005

In a refinement of the Phase 1 project described below, the Design Center focused on just the cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. The Metropolitan Council parks layer used in the first phase was augmented with the park layers from the City of Minneapolis and City of Saint Paul. Parkways, trails, and green corridors that do not have park-like qualities and could not be used as a park (e.g., the Midtown Greenway, Gateway Trail, Victory Memorial Parkway, etc) were removed before creating the park buffers. In addition to the refined park layers, green spaces around public schools were digitized by hand and used in the analysis.

Map Series Two (October 2005)

Map 1: Access to Parks and Low Mobility: Minneapolis (1.6 MB)
Map 2: Access to Parks and Low Mobility, No Buffers: Minneapolis (1.5 MB)
Map 3: Access to Parks and Low Mobility, Block Groups: Minneapolis (1 MB)
Map 4: Access to Parks and Low Mobility: Saint Paul (1.9 MB)
Map 5: Access to Parks and Low Mobility, No Buffers: Saint Paul (1.7 MB)
Map 6: Access to Parks and Low Mobility, Block Groups: Saint Paul (1.8 MB)

Documentation: Mapping Park Buffers: The Minnesota Method (716 KB)

Phase 1: August 2004

In a refinement of the conventional "crow-flies" buffers, the Design Center created a buffer of a quarter-mile street distance around every park over one acre in size in the seven county metropolitan area. For smaller parks the buffer was one eighth of a mile. These street network buffers are more representative of actual access to parks because they account for barriers such as lakes, private land, and lack of roads.

The red and orange areas on these maps have many people with low mobility and poor street access to parks. The red and orange areas of the map use census data at the block group level to show individuals with limited mobility living beyond the quarter mile park buffers. Those with low mobility are defined as children aged 5-14, seniors, those in poverty, and those in households without cars. Low mobility is calculated in two ways-based on the percentage of the total population in a block group and based on the density of these population groups. Using census data, these four variables were combined into a standardized indicator based on a statistical measure called a z-score. A z-score standardizes numbers with different averages and different levels of spread so that a z-score of zero on one variable means the value for a block group is exactly average, a score of one means it is one standard deviation above the average.

All the maps linked below show municipal boundaries, water, parks, park buffers, freeways, industrial land, airports, and the red and orange areas with low mobility populations.

Map Series One (August 2004)

Documentation: Mapping Park Buffers: The Minnesota Method (716 KB)

Outcome: The Trust for Public Land used these maps as part of a successful grant application to the Minneapolis Foundation. The maps have been used by a number of other groups to lobby for increased park space and greening efforts.

 





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