Emily Badger looks at the latest "ParkScore" rankings released by the Trust for Public Land (TPL). Using advanced GIS, TPL ranks America's fifty largest cities by evaluating factors including park access, size, services and investment.
By expanding their evaluation from the United States' forty largest cities to fifty, the Trust for Public Land has found a new victor in its annual evaluation of the country's best park systems: Minneapolis. "The parks there are plentiful, they're large (spanning more than 36,000 acres of the entire city), they have real amenities (2.9 playgrounds per every 10,000 residents), and the city actually spends money on them ($210 per resident per year)," writes Badger.
"Here is this year's Top 10, which differs in a few ways from last year," she notes. "In that previous list, the Trust only looked at the 40 largest cities (leaving out No. 48 Minneapolis). Southern cities are conspicuously absent:
- 1. Minneapolis
- 2. New York
- 3. Boston (tie)
- 3. Sacramento (tie)
- 3. San Francisco (tie)
- 6. Washington, D.C.
- 7. Portland
- 8. Virginia Beach
- 9. San Diego
- 10. Seattle
Read the full story: What We Can Learn About a City by Mapping Its Parks
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
‘Going backwards:’ Baltimore mayor, students rally against state's transit funding plan
Maryland's proposed six-year plan provides no funding for Baltimore’s BMORE bus program and reduces its road maintenance funding.
Detroit to transform waterfront with $2.2 billion investment
Developers will convert about 18 acres of unused parking lot space into civic spaces.
Data center developers are using lawsuits, cash offers to ‘overwhelm’ rural America
Newsrooms in five states worked together to uncover the tactics big tech developers use to buy land from reluctant communities.
U.S.-Iran war may have ‘devastating’ impact on cost to warm homes
Vermont and Maine residents may see a 76% increase in the cost of warming their homes this winter.
Senate bill would ‘overhaul’ environmental permitting laws
Under the proposed act, government agencies would also not be able to suspend or rescind permits after granting them.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
One Hundred Miles
County of Mendocino
planning NEXT
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
Montrose County
Northern Illinois Transit Authority (NITA)
The Pocatello Development Authority