Layering Public Park Histories: Using GIS to Uncover Socio-Spatial Inclusion and Exclusion in Post-war Germany and the U.S.

This paper proposes a lens of analysis for studying the history of public urban parks as spaces that fostered specific codes of conduct. The two case studies of post-war public urban park development in Richmond, Virginia (United States) and Hamburg (Germany) exemplify restoration ideas and ideals implemented by urban planners, politicians, and residents. This paper focuses on two historical contexts, which launched radical structural changes throughout the built environment in each case study. In Richmond, Chimborazo Park displaced and excluded an African American (Black) community during the aftermath of the Civil War, while Hamburg's Alsterpark was created within the city’s general post-World War II greening initiatives that included forced expropriation and regulation of social behavior. The joint GIS-based approach furthers the analysis of these spatial histories by understanding patterns of displacement, exclusion, and social control. The paper thus demonstrates how park creation, often presented as innately beneficial for the public by planners, government officials, and stakeholders, served to enforce prevailing social and political norms by excluding unwanted visitors and regulating “proper” behavior in parks. By layering historical data in GIS software, the paper offers an approach for critically examining historically salient socio-political implications of, and power relations within, urban green space development. It informs conversations at the intersections of spatial methods and urban heritage. The GIS models created by both authors illustrate the histories of modern park constructions, largely unknown today by community members in both Richmond and Hamburg. As both cases focus on public parks that exist today, the authors can educate a broad public audience who are either unaware of the histories of the parks they regularly inhabit or assume them as neutral spaces.