Park data ranks Austin 54th on list of 100 cities. Here's what that means
AUSTIN (KXAN) — As the Austin City Council undertook a major vote Thursday on deciding how much funding to commit to an initial investment for what could eventually add parks on top of Interstate 35, data released earlier this week revealed that Austin’s park systems aren’t as good as they once were.
Austin fell 10 spots on an annual list that ranks park systems based on access, investment, amenities, acreage, and equity.
The Trust for Public Land released its annual ParkScore report this week, which ranks the park systems of the 100 largest cities in the United States. Austin ranked in the 54th spot and received a score of 51.2 out of 100, based on an average of the five categories.
Last year, Austin was at number 44, and in 2020, Austin landed at 37.
While that number may seem like a “bad grade,” State Director for the Trust for Public Land, Molly Morgan, said the ranking system is more of a tool than anything. “Park score rankings are a way that we help cities measure both their progress and where they stand in their green space investments,” she explained.
“I try to look at the rankings, not as a good or bad thing, right?” she said. “I consider it a tool for how we can all better meet the needs where we’re working. So in Austin, if people — you know, the residents — want specific things in their park spaces, this is a tool to help measure where the city is compared to others.”
Morgan, along with data from TPL, outlined Austin’s strengths and areas needing improvement.
“Austin has a great park system,” Morgan said. “And so that’s one reason I said that the score, you know, isn’t good or bad necessarily, because Austin really does have an incredible park system.”
Again, those five categories are acreage, access, investment, amenities, and equity. Below is a breakdown of Austin ranked in each:
Acreage: 51 out of 100 points
Based on a city’s median park size and the percentage of city area dedicated to parks
According to the Trust for Public Land, there are two components to the acreage score: the percentage of the city’s overall area that is dedicated to parkland and median park size.
Austin “about average” on both. For the percentage of the city’s overall area that is dedicated to parkland, Austin got 41 out of 100 points. For the median park size aspect, it got 60 out of 100.
Austin’s median park size is 6.7 acres, which is higher than the national ParkScore average of 5.4 acres. However, Morgan noted that Austin’s actual acreage amount is still “a little bit lower than we see in a leading city like Plano, who has just more parks acreage.”
Austin has a total of 18,437 acres of parkland.
Access: 56 out of 100 points
Measures the percentage of residents living within a 10-minute walk of a park
Austin’s score in the access category was “about average,” according to TPL.
The access score “indicates the percentage of a city’s residents that live within a walkable half-mile of a park – the average distance that most people are willing to walk to reach a destination,” per TPL.
About 68% of Austin’s population lives within that distance to a park. TPL said Austin’s score in this category is “about average.”
Investment: 75 out of 100 points
Measures park spending per resident
The category in which Austin scored highest was investment, with 75 out of 100 points. Austin’s per capita investment in parks exceeded the national average of $133, according to the TPL release. Austin’s per capita investment is $211.
According to TPL, the investment score “indicates the relative financial health of a city’s park system, which is essential to ensuring the park system is maintained at a high level. This value aggregates park and recreation spending across all agencies and organizations within the city, including monetized volunteer hours.”
Amenities: 33 out of 100
Assesses the availability of seven popular park features: basketball hoops; off-leash dog parks; playgrounds; splashpads and other water-play structures; sports fields; recreation and senior centers, and restrooms
When it came to amenities, Austin scored below the national average. That category includes access to sports fields and basketball hoops.
Austin’s scores varied by amenity, according to TPL. Here’s how it broke down: basketball hoops (25 points out of 100), sport fields and diamonds (1 point), dog parks (42 points), playgrounds (36 points), senior and rec centers (24 points), permanent restrooms (29 points), and splashpads (39 points).
Equity: 42 out of 100
Compares per capita park space and 10-minute-walk park access in communities of color vs. white communities and in low-income neighborhoods versus high-income neighborhoods. Park systems score higher if disparities are minimal or non-existent
This category is an average of two types of metrics.
In the first set of measures, Austin scores about average, per TPL: 56 out of 100 points for people of color living within a 10-minute walk of a park and 54 points for low-income households.
The second set of measures compares the distribution of park space, according to TPL.
“In Austin, residents living in neighborhoods of color have access to 46% less nearby park space than those living in white neighborhoods (38 points out of 100). Residents living in lower-income neighborhoods have access to 64% less nearby park space than those in higher-income neighborhoods (20 points out of 100).”
More details on Austin’s scores, and maps highlighting different score categories can be viewed in the document below.
Last year, Austin landed at the 44th spot.
According to the city of Austin’s data portal, Austin dropped three spots in 2024 compared to the previous year. The Parks and Recreation Department’s desired target is 35, according to the portal.
The long-term goal is to “move into the top ten rankings of park systems in the ParkScore Index, eventually reaching number one.”
The Austin Parks & Recreation Department says it desires to be the city with the best parks system in the country. PARD says is working toward a ranking of number one, adding it is important to note that a ranking that remains the same from year to year is actually a win considering the steady increases in population that Austin experiences annually.
PARD’s Planning & Development Division improves parkland every year, but the rapid influx of residents outpaces the rate at which the department can acquire and develop parkland for usage by the public. So, a static TPL ParkScore means that Austin is balancing the cost of acquiring parkland in an expensive market with rapid population growth and limited departmental resources.
PARD on the 2024 ParkScore rankings, via Austin’s open data portal
Colin Wallis, CEO of the Austin Parks Foundation, didn’t like the outcome.
“Austin dropping 10 places to 54 in the TPL Parkscore rankings is disappointing,” he said via email. “As a city, we are going in the wrong direction compared to other cities in the US. We have to do better.”
“Parks are unifiers,” Morgan said. “They bring people together.”
“I think post-COVID, we’re all living in a world where we are craving community connection, and we are all, you know, the isolation we experienced during the pandemic, I feel like people really can see how much benefit people got from being outside and being in community, and parks are a free, and health-wise, beneficial place to do that,” Morgan continued.
“So parks are important to think about as infrastructure and neighborhoods that make community, communities happier, more connected, safer, and healthier, and so, you know, that’s what keeps us working at TPL and thinking about how we can better connect people to that nature across the board.”
