Key Takeaways:
The Bezos Earth Fund announced a $100 million second round of Greening America's Cities on July 7, funding parks in eight US cities.
Little Rock's 30 Crossing Park gets $30 million, the round's largest grant, to convert a removed Interstate 30 interchange into a 20-acre downtown park.
The program has deployed $150 million across 11 cities toward a $400 million goal that treats green space as essential infrastructure.
The Bezos Earth Fund announced a $100 million investment Tuesday to turn underused urban land into parks and green space across eight American cities: Allentown, Atlanta, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Little Rock, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City and Sioux Falls. It is the second round of the fund's Greening America's Cities program, which has now committed $150 million across 11 cities toward a planned $400 million.
Little Rock takes the largest share, $30 million per the City of Little Rock, to build 30 Crossing Park on a 20-acre downtown site reclaimed when a cloverleaf exit ramp came off Interstate 30. The fund expects the grant to catalyze another $60 million to $70 million in local fundraising. Cleveland will convert 600 vacant publicly owned parcels across two east-side neighborhoods into block-level green space, and Los Angeles gets $10.1 million, per ABC7, for a 5-acre park at the Watts Towers arts campus ahead of the 2028 Olympics.
Indianapolis turns 25 acres along the White River into a park with two miles of new trails, Salt Lake City greens a 1.7-mile bike corridor used by 500,000 riders a year plus a former industrial brownfield downtown, Sioux Falls converts a 16.3-acre quarry, and Allentown transforms a 1.1-acre asphalt lot in one of its most heat-vulnerable neighborhoods. Residents shaped each design, and every project carries a long-term maintenance plan.
Those places shouldn't be a luxury.
Taylor pointed to research that green space cools neighborhoods, improves air quality and supports mental and physical health, with access still uneven in places where vacant land has gone without investment.
Private money building public infrastructure is becoming a defined lane in American philanthropy, pick a public burden, retire it at scale. It is the same shape as the Walton-backed revolving fund that launched in Arkansas this week and the $550 million California medical debt erasure that cleared bills for 261,000 people.
People Also Ask
What is the Bezos Earth Fund's Greening America's Cities program?
A $400 million initiative started in 2023 that converts underused urban land into parks and green space, now funding projects in 11 US cities.
Which cities received Greening America's Cities grants in 2026?
Allentown, Atlanta, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Little Rock, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City and Sioux Falls share the $100 million second round announced July 7.
How much did Little Rock receive for 30 Crossing Park?
$30 million, the largest grant in the round, for a 20-acre downtown park on land reclaimed from a former Interstate 30 cloverleaf, expected to spur another $60 million to $70 million in fundraising.
Who runs the Bezos Earth Fund?
CEO and President Tom Taylor leads the fund under Chairman Jeff Bezos and Vice Chair Lauren Sánchez Bezos.