We know that Baltimore’s parks system is woefully underfunded compared to other park systems in high density cities, but there isn’t a lot of information about budgets for individual parks.  For instance, little is known about how funds are allocated to Patterson Park specifically.  If there are insufficient funds available to Patterson Park, such budget deficits suggest little hope in implementing the recommendations contained within Patterson Park’s Master Plan.  Despite the lack of park specific information, taking a look at Baltimore City budget documents and extrapolating from that data, a general picture of operations and maintenance spending at Patterson Park can be made.

For the entire parks system, Recreation and Parks Department spent $38,018,596 on operations in 2016.[1]  Operations spending includes “landscaping, maintenance, tree work, programming, administrative, and debt service.”[2] With those funds, the Recreation and Parks Department serviced 4,874 acres of parkland.[3]  This leads to operations spending of $7,800 an acre.  Applying that operations spending equally over each acre of parkland, Patterson Park would receive $1,045,200 to maintain and operate the 134 acres at Patterson Park on a yearly basis.[4]

Although the operations figures mentioned above include maintenance costs for the entire park system, Baltimore City breaks out park maintenance budgets into five geographic park districts.[5]  Patterson Park is located in the Patterson Park District and includes thirty-nine parks with 272 acres, with Patterson Park being the largest at 134 acres.[6]  Fiscal year 2016 maintenance costs for the Patterson Park District was $942,599 for all thirty-nine of the parks within the district boundaries.[7] This allows for maintenance spending of $3,465 an acre if all acres of parkland are treated equally.  Patterson Park’s share would be $464,310 and over forty-nine percent of the entire maintenance budget for all thirty-nine parks.  Such spending is unlikely as that would only lead to maintenance spending of $12,587 for each of the thirty-eight other parks in the district if each park was allocated the same maintenance dollars.  In reality, maintenance expenditures by the Recreation and Parks Department for Patterson Park are likely much lower than $464,310.

Operations spending in high-density cities is $25,427 an acre on average.[8]  For Patterson Park, that would equal $3,407,218.  Baltimore’s spending is not anywhere close to those numbers.  Just like the spending deficits for the entire park system, Patterson Park’s operations spending lags significantly behind where it should be.  The lack of funds places implementation of the well formed recommendations in Patterson Park’s Master Plan in jeopardy.

 

[1] The Trust for Public Land, City Park Facts 2017, Staffing and Spending, https://www.tpl.org/2017-city-park-facts#sm.00017qq80cqnres8vrx2gkuob3gzn; see also, Baltimore City, Fiscal 2018 Budget, Agency Detail 437 (Vol. II), https://bbmr.baltimorecity.gov/sites/default/files/Agency_Detail_Vol2_FINAL_2017-05-05.pdf (indicating that the total spending for the entire department was $38,792,528 in fiscal year 2016).

[2] City Park Facts 2017, Staffing and Spending.

[3] The Trust for Public Land, City Park Facts 2017, Acreage and Park System Highlights, https://www.tpl.org/2017-city-park-facts#sm.00017qq80cqnres8vrx2gkuob3gzn.

[4] Baltimore City, Open Baltimore, https://data.baltimorecity.gov/Geographic/Patterson-District-Parks/imft-spq7.

[5] Baltimore City, Fiscal 2018 Budget, Agency Detail at 448.

[6] Baltimore City, Open Baltimore.

[7] Baltimore City, Fiscal 2018 Budget, Agency Detail at 448.

[8] 2017 City Park Facts Report at 11, 20-21; 2017 City Park Facts, Staffing and Spending Data.