The Trust for Public Land has released their 2022 Parkscore Index, which compiles data regarding public outdoor spaces for the 100 largest US cities. It also includes some private parks and playgrounds if they have a joint-use agreement with the city. The criteria also don’t exclude public spaces that may not necessarily be strictly parks, such as trails or other open spaces. However, it does only count the 100 cities with the highest population — there are over 100,000 cities in the US, so it’s a small minority.
Portland Real Estate has taken this data and provided a list of the top 11 cities for public outdoor space, sorted by overall score. The categories include median park size, percent of city that is parkland, and percent of residents within a 10-minute walk to a park, among other factors. Of course, Portland Real Estate couldn’t have made it a top 10 list since they had to include their own city, Portland, OR, which is #11 on the list with a score of 74.5 out of 100. The highest score belongs to Washington, D.C. at 84.9. In order from #2 to #10 are St. Paul, MN; Arlington, VA; Cincinnati, OH; Minneapolis, MN; Chicago, IL; San Francisco, CA; Irvine, CA; Seattle, WA; and New York, NY.
Photo by Carl Newton on Unsplash
More: https://stacker.com/real-estate/11-cities-have-most-public-outdoor-space