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San Antonio now ranks 61 out of 100 in a new index of public parks. The latest ParkScore report from the Public Land Trust shows San Antonio has a large amount of park acreage, but access is more limited than other cities.
San Antonio slipped from 57 to 61 in the annual ParkScore index, which ranks 100 large metro areas around the country. The median park size in San Antonio is 10.2 acres, almost double the national average of 5.4 acres. The main weakness is limited access, with only 47% of San Antonio residents living within a 10 minute walk of a park, compared to the national average of 76 percent.
Many Municipalities use ParkScore information to guide park improvement efforts.
Molly Morgan is Texas State Director at the Trust for Public Land.
“What the data shows is that there's room to grow in having maybe some small neighborhood parks more targeted directly in communities,” she said, commenting on the scores for San Antonio.
Morgan said green spaces are important for new urban and residential development.
“Everyone deserves to have a green space near where they live. And so whether it's subdivision planning or looking at increased density, we really like to advocate that a green space be included in those planning efforts, again, for the benefits of those residents,” Morgan told TPR.
Morgan said The Public Land Trust has worked extensively with Dallas officials to increase their public park space.
“Dallas has really used the data from this report and the findings to really target where they are putting new parks and where partnerships could align for better park access, like with schoolyards that could be parks after school hours and on the weekends," said Morgan. "And though armed with the data from the report, the city and partners like us can help implement those things. And in Dallas, we've seen park access go up from 54% to 81%, meaning that 330,000 people in the city now have a park trailer green space within a 10-minute walk of their home that didn't before."
Morgan stressed that public park space is important for community and mental health.
“You know, kids have better alleviation of ADHD symptoms, better outcomes in schools. Just being outside for 20 minutes a day, especially in a nature space, can reduce your blood cortisol levels, and it makes us closer to our neighbors. It provides that, you know, third place where people can really come together and get to know one another.”
Although San Antonio slipped from 57 to 61 in the ParkScore, officials said that’s due to other cities' improvements across the country, not a decrease in San Antonio. In Texas, Plano ranked the highest in the index, and Washington D.C. ranked number one in the country.
