Cincinnati rated #7 best park system among major U.S. cities

The Trust for Public Land, a national nonprofit organization working to create and improve neighborhood parks, has released its ParkScore index to rate how well the 75 largest U.S. cities are meeting the need for parks. Cincinnati ranks #7.

ParkScore uses mapping technology to identify which neighborhoods and demographics are underserved by parks and how many people are able to reach a park within a 10-minute walk. The maximum ParkScore is 100, and Cincinnati received 75. The two cities tied for #1, Minneapolis and St. Paul, received grades of 84.

The Trust for Public Land based its analysis on what it says are the three important characteristics of an effective park system: acreage, facilities and investment and access. In these rankings, the best park systems have large median park sizes in terms of acreage (Cincinnati is OK there); parks comprising a large percentage of city area (Cincinnati is good); spend a lot on parks on a per-resident basis (Cincinnati gets the max score there); provide what TPL says are the four key facilities parks should have: basketball hoops, dog parks, playgrounds and recreation and senior centers (Cincinnati does well); and have a public park within a 10-minute (1/2 mile) walk of all residents (Cincinnati is OK; the orange/red areas in the map above fall outside the 10-minute-walk threshold).

See the full rankings and city writeups here. Find out more about the Cincinnati Parks system here.