Inside City Parks

A scorecard released today by the Trust for Public Land ranked Minneapolis, Boston and Cincinnati as the country's top urban park systems. Not far behind are Chicago, Denver, New York, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle. The scorecard was released in conjunction with the first-ever in-depth study of America's city park systems.The study, undertaken by the Trust for Public Land and published by the Urban Land Institute, analyzes park systems in the nation's 25 largest cities based on 15 indicators of park performance and offers a brief history of each city's park system. For example: Denver is setting the standard for creating parks on recycled land such as a railyard, a military base and the former Stapleton Airport; Boston, which is relocating highways and public transportation underground, is using the reclaimed land for parks and greenways; San Diego, one of the fastest growing cities in the nation, is applying developer fees and set-asides to create new parkland; Minneapolis set a standard of a park within six blocks of every resident and has nearly reached its goal.

Thanks to Chris Steins