New York City kept its 10th place spot in a list of cities with the best park systems for a second year, but nearby Jersey City and Newark, New Jersey did not fare as well in the rankings.
The Trust for Public Land – a national nonprofit that works with city governments to improve park access – released their annual Park Score Index that ranks the 100 most populous cities.
Their ranking is based on five factors: percentage of residents living within a 10-minute walk of a park, percentage of city area dedicated to parks, disparity between park access between white and communities of color, park spending per resident and the availability of amenities like dog parks and restrooms.
According to the group, 99 percent of New York residents live within a 10-minute walk of a park; the national average is 76 percent. New York also scored well for dedicating 21.4 percent of the city area for parks. But the city was hurt by its small median park size of 1 acre; the national average is 5.4 acres.
Jersey City fell to 45th place compared to 36th last year and Newark fell to 58th down from 47th in 2022. Jersey City was affected by its recent population growth that damaged its parks per-capita score. Newark got poor marks for having smaller parks. Both, however, scored in the high 90’s for percentage of residents within a ten-minute walk to a park.
Washington D.C took the winning title for best big-city park system in the country for a third year in a row, scoring well on all five indicators, including financial investment in its parks.
New York City’s score was hurt by a drop in park investment from $209 per person in 2022 to $199 per person in 2023, according to TPL.
Councilmember Shekar Krishnan, chair of Committee on Parks and Recreation, recently criticized Mayor Eric Adams' proposed executive budget for the coming fiscal year, where park funds make up $610.4 million of the total $106.7 billion budget – a decrease from January’s budget of almost $10 million.
“We are behind other cities across this country, and we have not seen the investments that this administration has explicitly promised for our parks,” Krishnan said at a recent committee hearing. “Despite knowing that our parks and green spaces, as we’ve seen during this pandemic, are crucial not just as places for recreation but for our mental health, for our public health and our well being.”
Still, New York City was named a national leader in promoting community health in parks. New York City based group Shape Up NYC and Kids in Motion programs got shout-outs for their work in offering non-competitive fitness classes.
