INTRODUCTION

This project was a collaborative effort to answer three questions. 1) Is there a difference in usage and perception of Pomona park amenities among various demographic categories, 2) What role does the issue of homelessness play in the perception of parks, and 3) How does sports facilities like baseball and soccer fields facilitate increased usage over other community parks in the city of Pomona? We conducted surveys of Pomona park users and determined that there was a variation in park usage along racial and ethnic lines with park users of Hispanic or Latino origin the most prominent users of the park and most likely to use it for sports or recreation. We asked users to rate the park on a 1-5 Likert scale in terms of park amenities and assessment and compared their answers to the Environmental Assessment of Parks and Recreation Spaces (EAPRS) tool and concluded that there was a slight difference in opinion based on demographic category even though the EAPRS tool showed that the parks were consistently rated average to above average in terms of physical structures. However, the one common thread was the existence of transients in each of the 7 parks surveyed and the majority of survey respondents mentioned that this issue was the main concern they had. Regardless of this issue, the parks with large sports facilities had much higher number of parks users than small community parks.

​

Keywords: Pomona; parks and recreation spaces; urban parks; park amenity assessment (EAPRS); demographics; homelessness in parks; sports facilities