photo by Jeanette.Cook
From a press release:
“Trust for Public Land announced today Washington, DC, was rated the nation’s best big-city park system by the 2024 ParkScore® index. Minneapolis, Minnesota, climbed into second, Saint Paul placed third, Irvine, California, finished fourth, and Arlington, VA retained its fifth-place position. The ParkScore index evaluates park systems in the 100 largest U.S. cities.
2024 is the fourth consecutive year that Washington earned the ParkScore crown and Arlington finished among the top five.
Both cities ranked highly on all ParkScore index rating factors. Ninety-nine percent of Washington and Arlington residents live within a 10-minute walk of a park, far exceeding the national ParkScore average of 76 percent. Both cities also outperform on park investment. Washington spends $345 per resident on parks and Arlington invests $303. Both cities more than double the national ParkScore city average of $124.
Washington also outperformed on ParkScore’s park equity metrics. Residents of the District who identify as Black, Latino, Indigenous and Native American, or Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are equally likely to live within a 10-minute-walk of a park as are residents of neighborhoods where a majority of the population identifies as white. Park space per capita is also distributed nearly equally in Washington.
By contrast, among all ParkScore cities, neighborhoods where most residents identify as people of color have access to an average of 45 percent less park space than predominately white neighborhoods. Residents in low-income neighborhoods have access to 45 percent less park space than residents in high-income neighborhoods.
Accompanying the annual ratings list, Trust for Public Land published new research reporting that residents of cities with high ParkScore rankings are, on average, more socially connected and engaged with their neighbors than are residents of cities with lower-ranking park systems.”