Cincinnati A Top 10 City in the Nation for Parks

Today, Cincinnati is once again top 10 in the nation for parks in a ranking of the largest 100 US cities. The annual ranking of park access, quality, and equity is compiled by the Trust for Public Land whose mission is to “create parks and protect land for people, ensuring healthy, livable communities for generations to come.”

The comprehensive, technical evaluation compares park lands in cities on 5 factors: access, acreage, investment, amenities, and equity in access to public greenspace by race and income. Cincinnati scored well above average when it comes to park access with 84% of residents living within a half mile of a park. The strongest score of 94 out of 100 possible points was in the amenities category, which measures the abundance of popular features such as recreation centers, playgrounds, restrooms, and interactive water features. Cincinnati also realized a modest gain of 2 points in the equity category, which examines the distribution of parks and park space by race and income.

The category experiencing a dip was in investment where Cincinnati dropped 9 points from last year. This category tends to vary from year to year based on the timing of payments toward projects, which can take several years to complete. For example, in the last 3 months, Cincinnati Parks has completed over $5 million in two projects alone: Lytle Park and the new Department of Natural Resources headquarters.  For this metric, looking at agency spending, Cincinnati still scored above average on a per capita basis compared to other cities. Given the recent decision to sell Cincinnati’s railroad to accelerate capital investment in the city’s aging infrastructure, it is anticipated more dollars will be spent on parks and greenspaces in the coming years.

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 the application. Overall, as a city, Cincinnati ranked #8 in the nation.

Maintaining and growing Cincinnati’s public greenspaces will remain a priority, and Cincinnati Parks is grateful to have resources such as the Trust for Public Land available to help make the best informed decisions about how and where to invest.  

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, 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.