Survey of city parks
Chugach State Park in Anchorage, the nation's largest urban park, at 495,000 acres (photo by Robert Cushing via PBase.com)
The Trust for Public Land, a national, non-profit land conservation organization, has released its annual city park survey, revealing some interesting statistics about the nation’s urban parkland. Some notable facts from the survey:
- New York City has the most parkland as a percentage of city land–19.6%–of high-density cities in the US. San Diego tops intermediate-density cities with 21.9%, and Anchorage trumps all low-density cities with a whopping 39.9%.
- Washington D.C. leads all high-density cities in total acres of parkland per 1,000 residents with 12.9 acres.
- San Francisco spends more tax dollars ($300) per person on parks than any other city in the nation. The national average is $100 per person.
- Central Park is the nation’s most visited park, with 25 million visitors a year. That’s more than five times the number of annual visitors to the Grand Canyon. Chicago’s Lincoln Park is next highest with 20 million visitors; Balboa Park in San Diego, Golden Gate Park in San Francisco and Forest Park in St. Louis round out the top five.
