Omaha ranks 12th among 60 U.S. cities when it comes to parks.
The Trust for Public Land released its ParkScore Index last week. The score is based on three factors: the walking distance to a city park, the amount of land dedicated to parks, and the median park size. The 60 largest cities in the U.S. were surveyed for the rankings.
Peter Harnik, Director of the Center for City Park Excellence for the Trust, says 13 percent of Omaha’s land is parks.
"In some cities, it’s as low as five and four and three percent. Some cities are higher than Omaha. But Omaha has a good amount of park land. The average size of the parks in Omaha is quite large, so you got points for both of those things. The playgrounds, you have a lot of playgrounds, of all the cities you have one of the highest proportions of playground per population, which is great."
Harnik says 76 percent of Omahans live within a half-mile walking distance of a park. He says Omaha’s spending on parks per resident is low.
More information on the parks rating report is available at parkscore.tpl.org.