SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – The Bay Area continues to lead the way in public park access.
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San Francisco was ranked as the number one city in America for accessing open space, according to the annual ParkScore Index released on Wednesday by the Trust for Public Land.
"San Francisco continues to be the leader in the country when it comes to access," Guillermo Rodriguez, California State Director with the Trust for Public Land, told KCBS Radio. "All 100% of the residents have access to a 10 minute walk to a public park or a public space."
Unsurprisingly, the city both features highly accessible parks and invests the most money in its parks in the country. San Francisco on average spends $420 per resident on parks, more than four times the national average of about $98 per resident, according to Rodriguez.
San Francisco overall finished as the seventh best park system in the nation, the region's only city to land in the top 10, though other Bay Area towns made significant upward moves. Fremont, San Jose, and Oakland all made jumps from last year's list, finishing 22nd, 26th and 39th respectively.
"In the Bay Area, we recognize that parks are essential to public health, they’re good regional planning tools and increasingly Bay Area cities are looking at parks and public space as ways to address climate change from mitigation to adaptation," Rodriguez said.
"We've moved here in the Bay Area away from looking at parks as amenities and nice to have and we’re now looking at parks as must haves," he added.
Washington D.C. topped the ParkScore Index for the second straight year, followed by St. Paul, MN, Arlington, VA, Cincinnati, OH, and Minneapolis, MN. The overall ParkScore was determined and measured by five different factors: Park equity, park access, park acreage, park investment and park amenities. The index compared the 100 most populous cities in the U.S. to compile its rankings.
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