Neighborhood Amenities in Ohio

Ohio

The health of individuals and communities is closely tied to the environment around them. Neighborhood amenities such as recreational facilities, libraries, playgrounds and sidewalks offer individuals opportunities to socialize, play, exercise and enjoy the neighborhood in which they live. There is evidence that safe neighborhoods with opportunities for and access to community engagement and healthy lifestyle habits contribute positively to physical health and mental health. For example, people who live in safe and beautiful communities close to parks or beaches spend more time walking outside on average. Access to green spaces has been shown to improve memory, stress and cognitive development in children as well. The evidence indicates that improving multiple aspects of neighborhood roads and walkways for pedestrians and cyclists and installing play equipment in parks may increase physical activity levels in adults and children.

Access to neighborhood amenities is more common among: 

• Children living in households 400% or more above the federal poverty level compared with children living below the federal poverty level.
• Children whose parents have a college degree compared with children whose parents did not finish high school.

Efforts to improve public spaces in low-resource neighborhoods are most successful when community-driven. Community planners along with community members, transportation, public health and other governmental agencies can work together to design safer, more walkable neighborhoods through community planning and zoning, and by locating schools, parks, recreational centers and other amenities within walkable distances from each other. Any project that adds features to a neighborhood will increase the proportion of children that have neighborhood amenities; however, some projects are more successful at improving health than others. Adding green features like plants and trees, more open and walkable spaces and other features that improve safety or recreation can have physical and mental health benefits for residents. It is important to be mindful, however, that neighborhood improvement projects can run the risk of displacing the residents the improvements were meant to help. 

One goal in the Surgeon General’s 2015 report on promoting walking and walkable communities is to design communities that support safe and easy places for people to walk.

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