Los Angeles may have better weather, but San Francisco has a much better park system. Â In fact, according to the annual ParkScore ratings for 2017, compiled by the Trust for Public Land to measure how well the 100 most populous U.S. cities are meeting their residents’ needs for parks, Los Angeles ranks 74th in the nation, well behind San Francisco, which comes in near the top at number 3. (Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, are ranked numbers 1 and 2, respectively, for the second year in a row.)
A key component of the score is how many people the city serves in things like park acreage, per capita spending on parks, and investment in facilities like basketball hoops and senior citizen centers.
According to the latest ParkScore, LA doesn’t score too badly on acreage (in fact we have more acreage than San Francisco), but it’s not accessible to as many people and we score really low on per-capita spending and facilities.
- Park acreage: 37,405 acres
- People served per park acre: 105
- Oldest municipal park: Pershing Square, est. 1866
- Largest municipal park: Griffith Park, 4,282 acres
- Most-visited municipal park: Griffith Park
- City area: 295,015 acres
- Median park size: 4.8 acres
- Park land as % of city area: 13.0 %
- Spending per resident: $84.81
- Basketball Hoops per 10,000: 0.8
- Dog Parks per 100,000 Residents: 0.3
- Playgrounds per 10,000: 1.1
- Recreation / Senior Centers per 20,000 Residents: 1.1
- Population density: 13.3 per acre
- Park acreage: 5,888 acres
- People served per park acre: 144
- Oldest municipal park: Portsmouth Square, est. 1847
- Largest municipal park: Golden Gate Park, 1,027 acres
- Most-visited municipal park: Golden Gate Park
- City area: 29,980 acres
- Median park size: 1.6 acres
- Park land as % of city area: 20.0 %
- Spending per resident: $235.08
- Basketball Hoops per 10,000: 3.8
- Dog Parks per 100,000 Residents: 3.8
- Playgrounds per 10,000: 2.4
- Recreation / Senior Centers per 20,000 Residents: 0.8
- Population density: 28.3 per acre
- Park acreage: 5,064 acres
- People served per park acre: 81
- Oldest municipal park: Murphy Square, est. 1857
- Largest municipal park: Theodore Wirth Park, 759 acres
- Most-visited municipal park: Chain of Lakes Regional Park
- City area: 33,958 acres
- Median park size: 6.6 acres
- Park land as % of city area: 15.0 %
- Spending per resident: $232.59
- Basketball Hoops per 10,000: 5.0
- Dog Parks per 100,000 Residents: 1.7
- Playgrounds per 10,000: 3.9
- Recreation / Senior Centers per 20,000 Residents: 2.5
- Population density: 12.0 per acre
If you’d like to see how L.A. (or your home town) stacks up against other cities when it comes to parks, the TPL also has a handy comparison tool that makes it quick and easy.
