Baldwin Hills Community Resilience and Access Plan
In partnership with the Baldwin Hills Conservancy, South Los Angeles Transit Empowerment Zone (SLATE-Z), Sumire Gant Consulting, and Adam Wheeler Design, Climate Resolve developed a Community Resilience and Access Plan for the Baldwin Hills Parklands over the past 18 months.
The Baldwin Hills Community Resilience and Access Plan highlights the existing climate impacts in the area surrounding the Parklands, details the stakeholder engagement approach, provides a design and transportation analysis for potential sites for resilience centers and spaces, and gives recommendations to move forward.
Parks can be a powerful and innovative space to reimagine social equity and climate resilience. Parks are naturally public spaces that boost quality of life by providing a place to recreate and rest. Moreover, during extreme events, such as a heat wave, parks can offer shade, water, and indoor/outdoor cooling places. Parks are places that can welcome individuals during everyday use and in emergencies. Therefore, park authorities and partner organizations need to work together to make parks, such as the Baldwin Hills Parklands, as resilient, welcoming, and accessible to the community by enhancing infrastructure, developing programming, and improving transportation.
“On the heels of the longest, hottest heat wave in Los Angeles this past September, families look to all potential cooling spaces for refuge,” said David McNeill, Executive Officer of the Baldwin Hills Conservancy. “For people who do not have access to, or can’t afford indoor cooling, paying a visit to a nearby park to escape the heat is a great option. The Conservancy is proud to be a part of this project and to be thinking about how parks can best support community needs in the future.”
The plan was mainly funded by the Baldwin Hills Conservancy Proposition 68, with additional funds provided by Climate Resolve, American Society of Adaptation Professionals, and California Parks Foundation.
Download the Plan directly or visit Baldwin Hills Community Resilience and Access Plan landing page to browse the report. (The Executive Summary in Spanish is available here.)