TORONTO -- When lockdowns close off public sports spaces such as basketball courts and soccer fields, they disproportionately affect lower-income and racialized families in dense cities, land-use experts say.
Earlier this month, public health experts decried Ontario’s lockdown moves targeting outdoor spaces, saying they’re some of the least likely places to contract COVID-19. And public spaces and land-use experts say it’s hard not to see disproportionate effects of these measures playing out along socioeconomic and racial lines.
“I think that we need to be very democratic making the laws… it's very clear that we are targeting citizens in different ways,” said Gil Penalosa, founder of 8 80 Cities, a non-profit organization striving to enhance mobility and equity for public spaces.
In a phone interview with CTVNews.ca, he said the Ontario government doesn’t realize its actions are furthering an ongoing disparity in amenities and over-policing. “I think they are moving in the wrong direction and they are targeting the wrong communities,” he said.
Indoor sports venues across the country such as gyms, hockey and curling arenas have been closed throughout the pandemic due to the risk of indoor spread. But recently, Ontario closed outdoor venues such as tennis courts, golf courses, soccer fields, and wrapped up disc golf baskets and basketball nets.
But although the restrictions and bylaw enforcement efforts are broad, Penalosa said they’re hitting those who already have less access to outdoor spaces. Studies show that in urban areas, where parks serve as the predominant nearby green space, restrictions to access may be felt more acutely.
And, Penalosa said, closing down outdoor spaces and amenities overall doesn’t hit more affluent families who have backyards, or who live in areas that have more access to open or green spaces.
He said COVID-19 has become a “magnifying lens to see things that were there.”
“We should not have a double standard. In any case, if we had a double standard issue, would be [giving privileges] to the low income and the racialized and discriminated people who have fewer possibilities than the wealthy," he said.
The inequality in terms of access to recreational spaces playing out is nothing new, says public space expert Jay Pitter, who told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview that “it's an extension of historical amenity inequity.”
“Some communities don't have good amenities at all,” said Pitter, a senior fellow at the Canadian Urban Institute, who leads projects focused on public space design and policy across dozens of North American cities.
She said that in urban areas, such as public housing, the few amenities that exist stereotypically include basketball courts, rather than tennis courts or swimming pools. “This is not just a matter of race. It's a matter of systemic inequity, which is not only rooted in racism but very much intersects with classism," she said.
Mitchell Reardon, the planning and design lead at the Vancouver-based The Happy City, an urban planning and design consultancy, told CTVNews.ca it's vital to hear from directly from people within the communities being affected by locked-up amenities or public space decisions in general.
"When looking at ways to support people in using public spaces safely right now, I suggest hiring peers and people in the neighbourhood to do so," he said. "I'd like to add that I think public agencies should provide funding to local community groups and networks, who would in turn hire people for this role."
COVID-19 POLICING HIGHER WHERE MORE COPS ALREADY ARE: EXPERT
Although there are concerted pushes to have the government reopen golf courses and tennis courts, some courses have simply defied the lockdown order, but those facing locked-up basketball nets aren’t as lucky.
“Prior to COVID police were already over-enforcing racialized, low-income communities, so naturally these communities will be disproportionately targeted during this time,” Pitter said.
In areas that already see disproportionate police presence, she said, it makes sense that shackled basketball nets or closed-off soccer fields would also be common.
“The combination of discriminatory urban policy and policing has created restriction in these communities dating back before urban renewal,” Pitter said, referring to government attempts to rejuvenate what could be considered run-down areas, which can lead to gentrification, removal of communal spaces and displacement of Black and racialized communities.
Enforcing bylaws by chaining up or taping off amenities is a common strategy across Canada, Pitter said.
"We must remember that for many communities, the issue isn't simply about access to recreational activities and respite,” she said. “Equity-seeking communities will face greater risk of police brutality, be denied space to physically distance outside of small living quarters and lose contact with not-for-profit organizations who've transformed public spaces to deliver vital services during COVID."
