Washington, D.C., has the country's best city park system, Alex Fitzpatrick reports from the Trust for Public Land's new rankings.

• TPL's annual report ranks the 100 most populous U.S. cities' park systems based on five categories: access, acreage, amenities, equity and investment.

D.C. once again took home top honors thanks to its high scores for investment and access, with nearly all residents within a 10-minute walk of a park.

• It's now held the top spot for six years running.

⭐️ Texas is a bright spot, too.

• Irving, a Dallas suburb, rose 28 spots in the rankings from last year. Fort Worth rose 14 spots, while Austin and Frisco are both up 7 spots.
• TPL credits Texas' gains to new parks and big investments, plus agreements letting people use school playgrounds and ballfields after hours and on weekends.

💸 Yes, but: Cities' inflation-adjusted parks and rec spending rose just 2% in fiscal 2025, TPL found, down from 7%-8% in each of the prior two years.

• That comes as pandemic-era federal aid is running dry, straining cities' budgets.

🌳 TPL president and CEO Carrie Besnette Hauser tells Axios: "For all of us that love parks ... it is concerning to us, and it's counter to public sentiment around parks and green space."

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Stay off the road tomorrow and Friday afternoons if you want to avoid the worst Memorial Day weekend traffic, Axios' Carly Mallenbaum reports.

• Sunday is a good driving day, per transportation data analytics firm INRIX.

🚙 AAA predicts that more than 45 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles this Memorial Day weekend.

• Most of them — more than 39 million travelers — will be driving, despite the sky-high gas costs.

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1. 🕯️ Former Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), a driving force behind big Wall Street reforms after the 2008 financial crisis, died last night at 86. Frank was an architect of the landmark Dodd-Frank Act and a trailblazer for the LGBTQ+ community as an openly gay member of Congress. Keep reading.
2. 📱 President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed a new effort to reach an Iran deal in a difficult call yesterday, Axios' Barak Ravid reports. One source said Netanyahu's "hair was on fire" afterward. Go deeper.
3. 👮‍♂️ Two law enforcement officers who battled Jan. 6 rioters at the Capitol in 2021 are suing to dissolve President Trump's $1.8 billion fund for victims of alleged political prosecutions. Go deeper.
4. 🤖 OpenAI is working on a confidential IPO prospectus that could be filed shortly, although timing remains fluid, a person familiar with the situation tells Axios' Dan Primack. Go deeper.
5. 🎙️ Vox Media is selling its podcast business and some publishing assets to James Murdoch's investment firm, Lupa Systems. Vox has been eyeing opportunities to sell its business in pieces, hoping to reap greater shareholder value. More from Sara Fischer.

New Orleans is hosting a flotilla of international tall ships for the kickoff of Sail 250, Axios' Carlie Kollath Wells reports.

• It's part of America's 250th birthday celebrations.

⛵️ A dozen vessels will be open for free public tours along the Mississippi Riverfront May 28–31.

🌎 The vessels hail from the U.S., Chile, Peru, Colombia, Uruguay, Sweden, the Netherlands, Argentina and the U.K.

• Anchors away!