Tag: Trust for Public Land

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Memphis Parks Score Low on Group’s Annual Report

Out of the country’s 100 largest cities, Memphis ranks 88 when it comes to parks, according to one group’s annual report on the country’s best park systems.

The Trust for Public Land nonprofit ranks parks in the country’s 100 most populous cities based on accessibility, investment, acreage, and amenities.

Memphis’ park system, comprising 194 parks, dropped one spot on the list from last year, but is still up three points from the 91st ranking Memphis received in 2018.


Memphis’ highest score was in acreage, where it earned 57 out of 100. That number is calculated based on median park size and the percentage of the city’s land dedicated to parks. The median size of parks here is 10 acres, nearly twice the national average of 5.2 acres. But only 5 percent of the land is used for parks and recreation, while the national median is 15 percent.

Memphis scored significantly lower in the investment category, with 38 out of 100. That score is based on the amount of public and nonprofit spending that goes toward parks, as well as the number of hours volunteers invest in parks. Memphis invested $76 per capita. For comparison, Minneapolis, which scored a perfect 100 in the investment category, spent $318 per capita.

Lower still, is Memphis’ amenity score — 25 out of 100. The group awards points in this category based on the availability of six key park amenities. The amenities include basketball hoops, off-leash dog parks, playgrounds, recreation and senior centers, restrooms, and splash pads.

Based on the report, there are 2.9 basketball hoops, 1.8 playgrounds, and .1 restrooms in parks per 10,000 residents. There are .5 splash pads and .6 dog parks per 100,000 residents. Recreation and senior centers rank in the highest percentile with .9 centers per 20,000 people.

Finally, in the access category, Memphis scored the lowest — 17 out of 100, dropping three points from last year. Accessibility is determined by the percentage of the population living within a 10-minute walk or a half mile of a park. Here, 46 percent of residents live within that proximity to a park. The national average is 55 percent.

The report also breaks down accessibility based on demographics. It found that more low-income households here are within a 10-minute walk of a park than both middle- and high-income households. Only 17,378 middle-income households, compared to 54,554 low-income households, are located within a 10-minute walk of a park.

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland is one of more than 260 mayors across the country who have joined the Trust for Public Land’s 10 Minute Walk campaign. Organized in partnership with the National Recreation and Park Association and the Urban Land Institute, the campaign aims to bring a park within a 10-minute walk to every household in the country by 2050. The campaign urges mayors to adopt long-term strategies to improve equitable access to quality parks.

The report lists five ideal quarter-mile-radius areas for new parks here. Those locations are near the intersections of Getwell and New Willow, Kirby and Mt. Moriah, Goodlett and Winchester, Perkins and Winchester, and Macon and Jackson.

Based on this year’s report, the U.S. city with the best park system is Minneapolis, followed by Washington D.C., St. Paul, Minnesota, and Arlington, Virginia.

Cities with the lowest-ranked systems include Oklahoma City, Charlotte, and Baton Rouge. Explore the report here.

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Memphis’ Park System Rank Improved, But Still Low

CREDIT: Trust for Public Land,

City of Memphis


Out of the country’s 100 largest cities, Memphis ranks 87 when it comes to parks, according to one group’s annual report on the country’s best park systems.

The Trust for Public Land nonprofit ranks parks based on accessibility, investment, acreage, and amenities.

Memphis’ park system, comprising 194 parks, earned an improved ranking from last year. It was up four points from the 91st ranking Memphis received in 2018.

Memphis’ highest score was in acreage, where it earned 60 out of 100. That number is calculated based on median park size and the percentage of the city’s land dedicated to parks. Here 5 percent of the land is used for parks and recreation, according to the report. The national median is 15 percent.


Memphis scored significantly lower in the investment category with 30 out of 100. That score is based on the amount of public and non-profit spending that goes toward parks, as well as the number of hours volunteers invest in parks.

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Lower still, is Memphis’ amenity score — 25 out of 100. The group awards points in this category based on the availability of six key park amenities. The amenities include basketball hoops, off-leash dog parks, playgrounds, recreation and senior centers, restrooms, and splash pads.

Based on the report, there are, 2.9 basketball hoops, 1.8 playgrounds, and .1 restrooms in parks per 10,000 residents. There are .3 splash pads and .6 dog parks per 100,000 residents. Recreation and senior centers rank in the highest percentile with .9 centers per 20,000 people.

Finally, in the access category, Memphis’ parks scored 20 out of 100. Accessibility is determined by the percentage of the population living within a 10-minute walk or a half mile of a park. Here 45 percent of residents live within that proximity to a park. The national average is 54 percent.

The report also breaks down accessibility based on demographics. It found that more low-income households here are within a half of mile of a park than both middle and high income households. Only 16,697 middle-income households, compared to more than 54,000 low-income households, are located within a half mile of a park.

Trust for Public Land,

Percentage of Memphis living within a 10 minute walk of a park.

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland is one of more than 250 mayors across the country who have joined the Trust for Public Land’s 10 Minute Walk campaign. Organized in partnership with the National Recreation and Park Association and the Urban Land Institute, the campaign aims to bring a park within a 10-minute walk to every household in the country by urging mayors to adopt long-term strategies to improve equitable access to quality parks.

The report also lists five ideal quarter-mile-radius areas for new parks here. Those locations are near the intersections of Getwell and New Willow, Kirby and Mt. Moriah, Goodlett and Winchester, Perkins and Winchester, and Macon and Whitten.

Based on this year’s report, the U.S. city with the best park system is Washington, D.C., followed by Saint Paul, Minnesota; Arlington, Virginia; and Portland, Oregon.

Cities with the lowest-ranked systems include Oklahoma City, Charlotte, North Carolina; and Mesa, Arizona.

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Memphis Ranked on Dog Parks

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Justin Fox Burks

Memphis lands on a lot of rando lists.

Best bluff cities. Best ursine sports mascots. Most-affordable alternative weekly newspapers. (These are fake, people.)

And lots of those lists come from really rando sources. UrbanYurt.com. LendingClownPenguin.org. The Hotdog-Is-Not-A-Sandwich Foundation. (These are also fake, people.)

But when the Trust for Public Land (TPL) talks dog parks? Sounds legit.

That San Francisco-based group is filled with experts on city parks. It issues a report each year that ranks the largest cities, “centered around our vision that everyone deserves to live within a 10-minute walk of a quality park.”

TPL said Thursday that Memphis ranks 72nd out of the nation’s biggest 100 cities for dog parks. The group divided the city’s population of 662,038 among its four dog parks and found there were .6 dog parks for every 100,000 people. Corpus Christi, Anaheim, and Jacksonville had the same number per capita but were ranked lower then Memphis.

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“Dog parks are built for dogs, but are fantastic resources for people,” said Diane Regas, president and CEO of the TPL. “As anyone who has chatted with a neighbor while taking their four-legged friend to the dog park knows, community is created there. Having places to meet our neighbors can help us find common ground and encourages everyone to get outside.”

America’s 100 largest cities have 810 off-leash dog parks, according to TPL New York has the most dog parks (145).

But here are TPL’s top cities for dog parks:

1. Boise, Idaho, with 13 total dog parks, or 5.7 per 100,000 residents.
2. Portland, Oregon, with 35 total dog parks, or 5.4 per 100,000 residents.
3. Henderson, Nevada, with 15 total dog parks, or 5.0 per 100,000 residents.

Other cities in the top 10 include Norfolk, Virginia (4th place); San Francisco, California, and Tampa, Florida (tied for 5th place); Las Vegas; Nevada, and Madison, Wisconsin (tied for 7th place); Oakland, California (9th place); and Arlington, Virginia (10th place).

See the full list for yourself here:

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Group Aims to Improve the State of Memphis Parks

Last month, the Trust for Public Land released its annual Park Score survey, which analyzes parks in the 60 largest American cities by population, median park size, playgrounds per resident, access to parks by income, and a handful of other factors. The Park Score found that Minneapolis, the best city for parks, spends $213.87 per resident on its parks, while Memphis, tied for 53rd with San Antonio, spends $64.57 per resident on its parks.

Peter Harnik, director for the Center for City Park Excellence for the Trust for Public Land, said Memphis scored so low mainly because of citizens’ lack of access to parks.

“Memphis had a low score because most people can’t walk half a mile to a park,” Harnik said. “[In Memphis], the spending on parks and recreational programming is lower than average. There are also fewer playgrounds in Memphis than what is considered average. There is also a low amount of designated land for parks, despite it being such a spread out city.”

Still, with such a low score, Harnik is confident that parks in Memphis can improve. “There are lots of Memphians who understand that better parks mean a better city, and we want to get with these people and strengthen that feeling,” Harnick said.

An alleyway in the Vollentine Evergreen Neighborhood that runs parallel to the Greenline. The Trust for Public Land would like to turn these into functional connections throughout the neighborhood.

Last week, members of the community met with the Trust for Public Land, the Memphis Parks and Neighborhoods Division, and representatives from the Hyde Family Foundation to discuss the future of the park system that currently ranks as one of the worst in the country. It was the third in a series of public meetings intent on raising public awareness about local park quality that began last year.

The partnership has introduced new ideas to revitalize parks in Memphis, covering topics ranging from park maintenance and reconstruction to integrating parks to allow for more ecotourism.

Lauren Taylor, program director for Livable Communities at the Hyde Family Foundation, said the partnership has been focusing on revamping the entire park system from a grassroots level.

“Since the partnership started in 2013, we have found that there are two main things that need to change,” Taylor said. “The first thing we need to do is write a new master plan for the parks, because the last one was written in 1999. Secondly, we need to develop and strengthen the advocacy for parks that already exist.”

Some of the things the partnership is addressing include: completing a greenway that runs along Lick Creek, completing a greenway on the abandoned Chelsea rail line, reconnecting the Wolf River with the harbor and constructing a boat launch, and converting some Midtown alleyways into attractive, functional connections to the Vollintine-Evergreen Greenline.

Taylor said she hopes the public meetings the partnership has been hosting will allow the community to see that better parks in Memphis is an attainable goal.

“The big question is how do we better resource these things so we aren’t just relying on the city’s operating budget every year,” Taylor said. “That’s what this partnership is trying to answer.”