Access to attention and environmental stewardship is stratified by neighborhood wealth

Evidence

Consider two things in tandem. First, people in wealthier neighborhoods almost always have more access to urban parks and to parkland, on top of the fact that such neighborhoods are often in the hills or by the water. When I spoke with Mark Rauzon, one of the original founders of FOSC, he noted that the surrounding neighborhood is well-to-do, which meant that at the get-go, FOSC had lawyers, architects, and landscape designers at its disposal—all of them landed, property-owning professionals. This is a very different situation than in West or East Oakland, where people might be working paycheck to paycheck, with no margin to spare on stewarding or even paying attention to the local watershed. In turn, people in these neighborhoods have far fewer physical spaces for rest, recreation, and conviviality—and those that do exist may be poorly looked after. — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 663

Categorization

• XREF: Directly feeds the reader’s stated critique of whether Odell’s solutions require privilege — this passage is Odell anticipating that exact objection. — connects to: Environmental attention includes preventative maintenance against exhaustion of resources.
• DEEPTHINKING: The payoff that restoration capacity scales with landed wealth yet is demanded of the poorest — qualifies her caretaking ethic and deserves sustained attention.