Few Rhode Islanders say their neighborhood has plentiful greenery, according to a new survey.
Just 34% of survey respondents said they have enough access to green space near them. And the survey shows wide disparities based on Rhode Island geography: just 17% of respondents in what the survey calls the “Core Cities” of Providence, Pawtucket, Woonsocket and Central Falls said they had plentiful access to green space, compared to 41% in “Non-Core” areas.
Known as the Rhode Island Voices project, the survey is connected to the annual RI Life Index study conducted by Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island and the Brown University School of Public Health, and is intended to gauge how residents feel about various issues that affect public health in the state.
Ocean State Media afternoon host Mareva Lindo spoke with Melissa Clark, a professor at the Brown University School of Public Health and the scientific lead on the Rhode Island Voices project, about the survey and its implications for improving Rhode Islanders’ access to green space.
Interview highlights
On the motivation for conducting this survey
Melissa Clark: Once a year we do what’s referred to as a random digit dial survey where we contact residents around the state to ask them about their perceptions and experiences of those social factors in their life. So that would be things like affordable housing, cost of living, programs and services for children, programs and services for older adults. All those things that happen that affect our health but may not be what’s happening in our doctor’s offices.
So this topic about green space and climate change came out of knowing that the environment affects our health. And the importance of asking questions about what are people feeling [and] experiencing on these topics, and giving us feedback about what kind of data can really be useful right now in the state around these social drivers of health.
On the survey result showing most Rhode Islanders aren’t satisfied with the amount of the greenery in their neighborhood
Clark: So we ask questions about things like how much greenery is in your neighborhood? How safe do you feel being outside in nature? What are the things you’re satisfied about the public parks and dissatisfied (with)? So those types of questions. What we learn is that, particularly, those that are living in our “Core Cities” – that includes Central Falls, Pawtucket, Providence, and Woonsocket – are much less likely to report plentiful green space in their neighborhoods relative to the folks living in the non-Core areas.
Those living in the “Core Cities” are also less likely to report that they have easy access to the natural environment, so places to go to be with nature. The “Core City” residents also feel less safe in the public parks, and they also report that the parks that they do have access to are less well cared for. So in general, we just have large disparities in this access to green space between those living in the core cities and non-core areas.
On how the data will be used to advocate for policy change
Clark: One of the saddest things for me when we were collecting the data and analyzing the data was the number of comments from residents that say, “I’m trying my best to do what I can afford to do to try to save energy, to try to help the environment. Recycling. I’m using re-usable shopping bags. I’m trying to use less water. I’ve been trying to do that, but there are just some things that I would like to do that are structural, that are too expensive for me to do.”
That really does take being addressed at the community level and at the state level. I’ll just give a few examples of that. We asked about composting organic waste as an example of something that could be done and a number of the folks wrote, “I would do that, but the place that I rent doesn’t have the opportunity for me to do that.” Or for folks that make the decisions themselves about changes to their households, they said “I’m very supportive of considering alternative energy sources like solar or wind. I can’t afford to make those kind of changes to my house.” Or folks that own a car now and we ask questions about, “Would you consider buying an electric vehicle?” They said, “I’m not opposed to that. I can’t afford that.”
Those are the types of things that we need to be tackled at the community levels and at the state level to make some of these strategies economically feasible for those of us living in Rhode Island. The cost of living is high. We’re already paying a lot for our groceries; we’re paying a lot for our housing. So to address things like climate change, we need to do this at the community and state level, while also encouraging those of us as individuals to do as much as we can.
