Seating Inequity in Chicago Park Playgrounds

One thing I've wondered about is equity in the Chicago Park system. One way I've thought about this is the availability of seating (benches and picnic tables) in Chicago Park playgrounds. Sitting down - at least to me! - seems central to an enjoyable park experience. Yet I've noticed a discrepancy in access to seating in my experiences and I wanted to see if that could be quantitatively supported.

As a starting point, let's compare two well-known Chicago neighborhoods: Lincoln Park and Englewood. Lincoln Park has 12 playgrounds; 11 of those playgrounds have benches and 5 of those playgrounds have picnic tables. Englewood has 17 playgrounds; 14 of those playgrounds have benches and only 1 of those playgrounds has a picnic table.

This is a tremendously small sample size, but it seems to support my sense that access to playground seating is somehow related to the neighborhood.

Here is a map of playgrounds that lack both benches and picnic tables.