Trust for Public Land and a Broad Coalition of LA Community Organizations Applaud Los Angeles City Council for Advancing Charter Amendment to Restore Park Funding
LOS ANGELES, CA – More than 100 community-based organizations, neighborhood leaders, park and public health advocates, and residents from across Los Angeles applauded the Los Angeles City Council today for advancing a charter amendment that would restore long-term funding for the Department of Recreation and Parks. Coalition members also thanked Councilmembers Rodriguez, Jurado, Padilla, and Hutt for championing a fiscally sound proposal that would allow Los Angeles voters to decide the future of park funding this November.
More than 1.5 million Angelenos do not live within a 10-minute walk of a park, with neighborhoods including South Los Angeles and Pacoima facing some of the city’s greatest park access gaps. These same communities also disproportionately experience air pollution, toxic contamination, and other environmental and public health burdens. Increased investment would help expand and improve parks, recreation facilities, and community school parks in neighborhoods that need them most, advancing greater park equity across Los Angeles. This funding will allow RAP to begin to address park equity through new and improved parks and community school parks for communities that lack park access.
The proposed amendment would double the Department of Recreation and Parks’ minimum charter funding through a phased 10-year implementation. On June 17, the Los Angeles City Council voted to direct the City Attorney to draft a charter amendment that would double the Department of Recreation and Parks’ guaranteed minimum annual funding over a 10-year period. On June 30, the Council approved the ballot language—a critical milestone toward placing the measure before Los Angeles voters in November 2026. If approved by voters, the amendment would help reverse decades of underinvestment in the city’s park system and provide a stable, dedicated funding floor for parks and recreation.
“The 2025 Parks Needs Assessment showed a system in crisis and laid out a path forward. This is generational progress towards addressing this crisis,” said Sarah K. Friedman, Trust for Public Land. “We applaud the City Council for a common-sense proposal and look forward to working with City leadership to identify and create additional revenue streams so the Los Angeles park system will rise from 93rd in the nation.”
“Increasing the charter allocation is the only sure path to pulling our park system out of its current decline — and it is fully within the intent and history of the charter which protected parks and library funding because they are essential to the life and culture of a great city. Study after study confirms their value for the health of residents and as the spaces where we are most likely to encounter people different from ourselves — to listen, learn, and build trust,” said Jon Christensen, with the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. “We need those spaces more than ever in Los Angeles. I deeply appreciate the careful, thoughtful consideration the City Council demonstrated in developing and moving this fiscally sound measure forward to the voters in November.”
“At the LA Neighborhood Land Trust, we work every day with the parks department, who have been doing more with less for decades,” said Tori Kjer, Executive Director of the LA Neighborhood Land Trust. “We also see how this has affected the services Angelenos rely on. However, throughout all, one thing is clear: Angelenos love our parks. We are deeply appreciative of all the community members who have showed up for parks and to City Council for taking action.”
“Los Angeles spends 1/3 of peer cities on parks ($92 to other cities $283) which, over decades of disinvestment, has led to a 2.4 B + deferred maintenance backlog and a 28% reduction in full-time park staffing, as the city’s park budget has lagged behind other departments and not kept up with inflation. Beyond recreation and parks, they along with LAPD, LAFD and Paramedics are the City’s first responders in times of crisis and emergencies,” said Sakae Koyama, Co-President of the Friends of Elysian Park, President of the Echo Park PAB and lifelong Echo Park resident. “We have seen this first hand and thank City Council for taking action to correct a broken funding system.”
“Restoring this funding will create good green union careers in the Parks department; staffing the services and programs that working people depend on – and tending the grassy and natural spaces that capture rain and provide shade, habitat and open spaces for Angelenos and wildlife. This work will also help prepare our city to respond to climate and other emergencies,” said Lauren Akhiam, Climate Campaign Director with Los Angeles Network for the New Economy. “This work is critically important to address climate and prepare our city for climate and other emergencies.”
“As we saw last week with the Lineage Logistics Fire, working class communities across LA pay with their health. We also see, that in times of crisis, like now, recreation and senior centers serve as emergency shelters, cooling centers, and sources of needed information, supplies and care. But they do so every day: providing elders with food and services, space for kids to practice sports, after-school safe havens, and a third space for families to experience the benefits of nature together” said Lluvia Arras, Ascot Hills Park Advisory Board member. “We applaud Council leaders for recognizing its time to invest in these essential services”
“We’ve seen park services erode throughout Los Angeles over the past decades, and families have suffered,” said Mona Field, former Charter Reform Commissioner. “I appreciate the City Council for moving forward this much needed and important reform, and for the public for engaging in this process.”
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About Trust for Public Land
Trust for Public Land (TPL) is a national nonprofit that works to connect everyone to the benefits and joys of the outdoors. As a leader in equitable access to the outdoors, TPL works with communities to create parks and protect public land where they are needed most. Since 1972, TPL has protected more than 4 million acres of public land, created more than 5,504 parks, trails, schoolyards, and iconic outdoor places, raised $112 billion in public funding for parks and public lands, and connected nearly 10 million people to the outdoors. To learn more, visit tpl.org.
