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What determines park use by minority groups, and how can park equity be increased? To answer these questions, the study reviews the literature on the equitable use of parks, and analyzes the outreach strategies of 11 exemplary open space organizations with success in increasing park use by underprivileged groups. It finds that park suppliers can increase park use by making parks more accessible and welcoming, and incorporating the preferences of underprivileged groups in park design and programming. It suggests that the tripartite framework of distribution, accessibility and fit may be employed to plan for a more equitable use of parks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent scholarship suggests that the urban design profession is flourishing with many newly created urban design departments, programmes and certificates. Within this context, this paper suggests that urban design education should explore how urban designers can acquire a deeper understanding of the larger socio-economic processes which have an impact on urban form and different groups in the city. More specifically, it posits that urban designers should take notice of the informal urbanism that is burgeoning in many cities of the Global North. For this to happen, urban design pedagogy should prepare future urban designers to better understand and positively intervene in informal urban landscapes, and the urban design studio is an appropriate venue where this can happen. The paper articulates a four-tier framework of responding to informal urbanism through urban design that concentrates on the scope, context, process and practice of urban design. It details a graduate urban design studio that followed this framework to offer spatial solutions and accommodation of street vending in one Los Angeles inner city neighbourhood. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]