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  "path": "/lifestyle/2026/05/24/best-cities-city-parks-green-spaces-access-walking-distance-trust-for-public-land/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-25T03:00:01.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.deseret.com",
  "tags": [
    "ParkScore index",
    "The start of a movement? How time outside can alter our nation’s health",
    "White House adviser on addiction Kathryn Burgum opens up about her own recovery",
    "Salt Lake City",
    "101 parks"
  ],
  "textContent": "Are parks and green spaces “nice-to-haves” or are they “need-to-haves?” Is building a park money lost or money gained? Are such places “essential” infrastructure?\n\nA series of studies was published this week by Trust for Public Land, a national advocacy for local parks and public lands that works to get more folks outside, offering insight about how American communities approach and answer those questions.\n\nTPL conducted an economic review of investments in parks as well as a public opinion poll with YouGov assessing attitudes about local parks. Both were done and published as part of its annual ParkScore index.\n\nThe list “ranks park systems in the 100 most populous U.S. cities and is widely considered the gold standard for park evaluation.”\n\nFor the sixth year in a row, Washington, D.C., topped the list, followed by Irvine, California; Minneapolis; St. Paul and Cincinnati. Cities in the West that broke the top 25 were Denver, Boise and Albuquerque.\n\nWhile the ParkScore is a great talking point, some of the other results stand out. They are both startling, but also entirely familiar.\n\n### What do people think about parks?\n\nThe biggest take away is that parks and outdoor spaces command overwhelming support from Americans. Other than home or work/school, parks are the most popular “third place” people gather.\n\nSome 79% of national respondents in the YouGov poll of 4,000 Americans said that parks are “essential” infrastructure and 88% said that it was important for governments to invest in affordable outdoor recreation.\n\nLike much of the information in the poll, such sentiments were mostly bipartisan. That investment imperative was nearly identical across the political divide, with 86% of Trump voters and 95% of Harris voters agreeing.\n\nAlmost 90% of respondents had visited a local park, natural area, schoolyard or trail in the past year. Of those, 88% said they did so for the health benefits. And 92% said that health was a motivating factor to spend more time in green spaces.\n\nThe biggest barrier folks had to spending more time outside was someone to go with. Some 46% said they’d go more often if it was with another person.\n\nThe start of a movement? How time outside can alter our nation’s health\n\n“Last year, we did another poll and found that the vast majority of people (from) both parties say that parks and outdoor spaces are the place where they’re most likely to interact and talk with people they don’t already know,” said Jim Petterson, Trust Public Land mountain West region vice president and southwest program director. “In this day and age — when I’m looking at my phone right now and we’re so immersed in our algorithmic silos — that’s another reason why these spaces are so important.\"\n\n### Return on investment\n\nTPL’s mission is to create more places for people to use to access the outdoors. Petterson said he sees the survey results as encouraging federal, state, city, and county partners to recognize the overwhelming support and to step up and invest in parks.\n\n“We work to create those places that people use, everything from neighborhood parks to national parks and we do this work because it is demonstrably proven that access to the outdoors is very good for our physical health, our mental health, and our social connections,” he said. “And we have data that says that these outdoor spaces are a solution to those three major problems.”\n\nWhite House adviser on addiction Kathryn Burgum opens up about her own recovery\n\nTPL’s analysis of 11 ground-level economic benefit studies found that, on average, every $1 spent in parks and recreation returns at least $3 in economic benefits every year.\n\nThose benefits are multiple and include lower healthcare costs, consumer savings on fitness and recreation, increased tax revenue and reduced stormwater treatment costs.\n\nParks also have a dramatic impact on property values, with tax revenue increasing from $5 million to $100 million depending on the location. Nationally, they also generate more than $200 billion in economic activity and support a million jobs.\n\n### How did Salt Lake City do?\n\nTPL creates its annual list using a variety of metrics. Those include money invested in park programs, acreage, percent of cities covered in parks (as well as proxies such as basketball courts, splash pads, etc.) and walking distance to a park. The gold standard is whether or not most folks are within half-mile or about a 10-minute walk.\n\nThe index includes only data points within city limits. Cities that are adjacent to large allotments of federal public lands — like Salt Lake City and the Wasatch-Cache National Forest, for example — do not get the benefit of that proximity in the ParkScore.\n\nIt also only ranks what it classifies as the 100 largest cities in the country. The way it organizes that data is based on municipal boundaries, which means that Salt Lake City does not break into its top 100.\n\nStill, Salt Lake City is doing well. It has 101 parks — covering 9% of its area — and is immediately adjacent to one of the most visited national forests in the country.\n\nEven without that proximity, some 84% of the city’s residents are within a 10-minute walk of a park. And folks in a lower income bracket have a slight proximity advantage with 86% being within a short walk over those in a wither higher incomes at 82%.\n\nIn some cities, 100% of the population lives within a 10-minute walk to a park. Petterson said he hopes that would encourage other cities to work toward the same result.\n\n### Something to rally around\n\nPetterson said parks are core to a city’s value.\n\n“We recognize that parks and outdoor spaces are a core part of what makes a city livable. People don’t say, ‘I’m going to move to Boston or to Salt Lake City because I love the sewer system,’” Petterson said. “They’re going to say, ‘Salt Lake City is awesome because we’ve got the Wasatch Front and I’ve got neighborhood parks down the street.’”\n\nThe survey found that 73% of those polled live in a ParkScore city where they said they are feeling or are anticipating “negative impacts” from recent federal budget cuts.\n\nPetterson said the TPL data will help elected officials and residents rally around something that has broad bipartisan support.\n\n“From what I’ve seen and heard — and we do a lot of polling because we do a lot of ballot measure work around the country — I really feel like the outdoors, public lands and parks are one of those things that people can rally around,\" Petterson said. “People are hungry for something that we can unify around.”\n\nThe organization polls in liberal and conservative places, Petterson said, adding he has seen people vote to tax themselves higher to pay for outdoor recreation in as many as 82% of local elections.\n\n“It’s very bipartisan, and I think that our elected officials — in some cases — are lagging behind the public in this area,\" he said. “It’s a big opportunity for all of us to come together and say, ‘We can fight about all kinds of things, but getting people outside physically active for their mental health benefits and their social connection benefits is something that we can be for.’ That’s really needed right now.”",
  "title": "America’s most popular ‘third place’ for social gathering"
}