Portland is one of the top cities in the nation when it comes to parks, according to the Trust for Public Land.
The Trust for Public Land (TPL) is a national nonprofit that works to "connect everyone to the benefits and joys of the outdoors," and seeks for everyone in American cities to eventually be within a 10-minute walk of a park.
In a ranking of U.S. cities, the City of Roses came in 9th place when it comes to park exceptionalism.
The TPL says its rankings were based on a metric focused on "five characteristics of an excellent park system": access, investment, acreage, amenities, and equity.
Cities were scored on a 1-100 scale (100 is the highest) based on how they compared to the other 99 cities.
Portland's stats:
Access - Percent of population within a 10-minute walk of a park with public access
85 pts/100
Equity - Accessibility of parks to People of Color and low-income people
55 pts/100
Acreage - Parkland as a percentage of city area
66 pts/100
Investment - Annual park investment
100 pts/100
Amenities - Basketball hoops, dog parks, dog parks, playgrounds, senior/rec centers, restrooms, splashpads
63 pts/100
These characteristic scores were then combined into an average, which gave Portland its #9 ranking.
Portland was praised for its accessibility, with 90% of total residents within a 10-minute walk of a park.
The city's equity score was more middling, with Black neighborhoods having 37% less access to parks than the average, and Hispanic neighborhoods 18% less. White neighborhoods, on the other hand, have 78% more access to park space than the average.
High-income neighborhoods have 63% more access to parks than the median, while low-income neighborhoods experience 34% less access.
Portland's love for dogs predictably showed through in the scoring, with 100/100 points awarded for number of dog parks per person.
However, the kiddos have a little less to enjoy - Portland only scored 24/100 on the number of existing playgrounds.
The city is also the cream of the crop when it comes to spending on parks, scoring 100/100! On average, Portland spends $145,864,073 across three years on its green spaces, with each person paying around $221 a year.
As for America's best city for parks, that honor goes to Washington, D.C. Second place was netted by St. Paul, MN, and the bronze medal went to Minneapolis, MN.