Can a tenth-of-an-acre lot with a sign commanding “No Playing” be considered a park? Not for a group of community collaboratives in Santa Ana, California. Dedicated to creating community spaces and opportunities for physical activity, the collaboratives — Healthy Eating, Active Communities (HEAC) and Active Living in Santa Ana (ALISA) — are transforming a half-acre brownfield into genuine neighborhood parkland.

“It took six years to secure a half-acre of land for this neighborhood park,” says Sandra Viera, Coordinator for the Healthy Eating, Active Communities (HEAC) collaborative. “This may not seem like much for some people, but it’s an enormous accomplishment for this neighborhood.

It’s an accomplishment in part because there’s virtually no green space available in Santa Ana, where 96 percent of the land is developed and 2 percent is city-owned or abandoned. Latino Health Access (LHA) — funded in part by The California Endowment and by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Active Living by Design program — began working to create a neighborhood park as part of their advocacy for environments, programs, and policies that make physical activity possible.

LHA’s CEO America Bracho identified an abandoned brownfield among dense, multi-family residential developments with no greenspace or facilities for physical activity. LHA began working to make the park happen, negotiating for four years with the city, residents, and other stakeholders to secure the land.

“People need safe places to be physically active if they are going to be healthy — we’re committed to a park where we can have landscaping, a half-court basketball court, and a playground,” says Viera.

Alongside working towards the park, they’ve allied with the Active Living in Santa Ana (ALISA) collaborative to identify other ways to provide kids with a safe place to play, including joint-use policies. One idea for providing safe activity space has been to open neighborhood schools in the evenings and holidays. There are obstacles to this plan too — schools have issues with security and maintenance, and the city faces an increasingly tight budget.

Last year there was progress on the park—in March 2007, the city council passed a 40-year lease for the park. “Now we begin the planning, building, and code compliance stages,” says Viera. “We’re working with an architectural firm and on a system where the community participates and takes ownership.” They’re hoping for a March 2009 opening.

The collaborative efforts support a comprehensive approach. The focus is on a broad concept of wellness that includes public safety, mental health, strong families, and strong communities, as well as physical health and fitness. “We’re meeting immediate needs and addressing underlying issues — making immediate changes that create permanent change,” says Viera. “You reach people by what is getting to them — if their kids are being recruited by gangs you can’t just tell them to eat better.” The comprehensive approach is fundamental to the successes in Santa Ana. “This is an exciting time in a lot of ways,” says Viera. “Positive change is happening.”

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