San Francisco ranks in top 10 for best parks in country
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
The view of Dolores Park in May. Photo: Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
San Francisco has one of the country's best park systems among other major cities, new data shows.
Why it matters: Parks and green spaces foster community-building and hold "tremendous potential for repairing our frayed social fabric," nonprofit Trust for Public Land (TPL) wrote in its report released today.
Driving the news: Among TPL's annual parks rating for Bay Area cities, San Francisco was ranked No. 7, Fremont No. 29, San José No. 32 and Oakland No. 52 among the 100 most populous cities in the country.
- San Francisco's seventh-place finish matched its ranking from last year.
By the numbers: San Francisco, which has 220 neighborhood parks and more than 4,000 acres of recreational and open space, scored 76.5 out of a possible 100 on TPL's annual ranking.
- The score takes into account the percentage of residents living within a 10-minute walk to a park, access in communities of color, acreage, amenities and the city's financial investment in parks.
- The city scored a perfect 100 for park access, with 100% of residents living within a 10-minute walk of a park, but its median park size of 1.3 acres, compared to the national average of 5.4 acres, limited its overall score.
- San Francisco spends about $546 per resident on parks, significantly above the national average of $124, according to the report.
What they're saying: "Park leaders are stepping up to promote community connection and address the national epidemic of loneliness and social isolation," TPL president and CEO Diane Regas said in a press release.
- The report pointed to San Francisco's free Sundown Cinema movie showings and Fremont's voter registration efforts as examples of how cities are fostering community and civic engagements in parks.
What to watch: The India Basin Waterfront Park, expected to be complete by 2026, will feature a recreational dock and boathouse, as well as more standard park amenities like a playground, basketball courts and more.
- Once complete, it will bring 10 acres of recreational space to the Bayview-Hunters Point, in an area that was once home to a military shipyard and slaughterhouse.
- Those now-defunct industries "left significant environmental damage" and cut residents off from the waterfront, TPL wrote in a case study included in the report.
- The goal of the new space is to strengthen the historically Black neighborhood that has "suffered from deep neglect of basic infrastructure and generations of social injustice."