Evaluating the walking accessibility of Cook County’s public schools to use as open space

ABSTRACT This paper evaluates hypothesized dual uses of the public schools to increase walking accessibility to open spaces as a part of the permanent urban interventions. The Two-step Floating Catchment Area (2SFCA) method was adopted to measure the 20 min walking accessibility of the public schools in Cook County, the home of the Chicago Metropolitan. We further used the bivariate local Moran I to examine the potential inequality issues in the spatial distribution of the school sites within walking distance. The result reveals geographically varying walking access to public schools. The lowest walking access is predominant across Cook County, including historically racially discriminated areas. This study sets an example of managing the underuse of urban facilities to benefit the neighboring communities. In addition, it provides a snapshot of the relationship between urban planning and geography. Planning should overlap with geography when it examines the spaces of everyday life, spatial relationships among its different dimensions, and the processes that create them.