Cincinnati A Top 10 City in the Nation for Parks

Top Ten, Again

Cincinnati— Cincinnati is once again top 10 for parks in the annual ranking by the Trust for Public Land who evaluates the largest 100 US cities on a number of criteria relating to the availability and quality of public park spaces. Cincinnati boosts a whopping 91% of residents living within a 10-minute walk of a public greenspace.

US Cities are carefully evaluated on 5 factors: access, acreage, investment, amenities and equity in access to public green space by race and income. The strongest score was in the amenities category, which measures popular activities among park users, where Cincinnati earned 99 out of 100 points. Cincinnati also scored very strongly for investment earning 87/100.

The review included parks and greenspaces in Cincinnati managed by the Cincinnati Park Board as well as the Cincinnati Recreation Commission, Cincinnati Public Schools and the Hillside Trust. Cincinnati Parks is grateful to have had their collaboration and support in developing their application. Successful public green spaces in Cincinnati are only possible with support from the Mayor, City Council, City Manager, many partner agencies such as our primary philanthropic partner the Cincinnati Parks Foundation, and of course all of our park users and volunteers who spend thousands of ours making our parks the best they can be.

Cincinnati Parks is grateful to have independent organizations such as the Trust for Public Land validate what we already believe. Cincinnati’s parks rock! “We are proud of the fact that Cincinnati has once again been ranked a top 10 city for parks. For us though, this isn’t necessarily about earning a better ranking from one year to the next, it is about continuing to try and get better year after year at providing awesome outdoor parks and rec spaces for citizens to enjoy.  This is a team effort.  It is a ranking of all of the public parks and greenspaces throughout the city.  So, we want to thank all of our partner organizations, policy makers, and everyone in the community who continue to advocate for parks."

Parks have a long and distinguished tradition in Cincinnati. The city is fortunate to have a robust and thriving system of parks dating back to the 1860’s with the development of Washington, Hopkins and Eden and Piatt Parks’. In 1907, George Kessler, Landscape Architect created Cincinnati’s first park master plan to lift the city out of the dirty environment created by the Industrial Revolution. As a result, many have described Cincinnati as being created as a city within a park.

Today, Cincinnati’s Parks consists of 5,000-plus acres of city parklands including 8 regional parks, 70 neighborhood parks, 34 natural areas, 6 neighborhood nature centers, 30 sites managed by the Cincinnati Recreation Commission, 5 parkways, 16 scenic overlooks, 2 arboretums and 65 miles of hiking and bridle trails.

The complete Trust for Public Land rankings may be found here.