Size Does Matter: Justice Versus Equality in the Urban Green Spaces Policy of Beersheba, Israel

Why do urban green space (UGS) policies often fail to promote justice? This article investigates such a policy in Beersheba, the “capital” of Israel’s southern region and one of the nation’s fastest developing cities. The new municipal UGS policy aims for justice by investing an equal amount of resources per square meter in both old, inner-city neighborhoods and the newer, more desirable outlying neighborhoods. Nevertheless, most of the inner-city UGSs are still run down. The article reveals the disparity between justice and equality in the policy. The findings suggest that social and environmental injustice is an outcome of basic planning decisions. Beersheba continues to plan large UGSs, under the misguided notion that they will foster local prestige and improve residential quality. In reality, however, planning large UGSs creates nonurban spaces and encourages climatically unsuitable development that requires more maintenance. Thus, the city is, unintentionally, pouring public funds into large UGSs in the newer areas at the expense of smaller UGSs in the older, weaker, and denser inner-city neighborhoods. As a consequence, the current policy preserves existing social disparities and promotes social and environmental injustice instead of using the UGS policy to create a more just city.