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The Trust for Public Land’s Center for City Park Excellence has issued the 2017 edition of its City Park Facts, and once again, Memphis brings up the rear in the various rankings and ratings.

For context, remember that Memphis has a total of 9,145 acres of parks within its city limits: 4,552 acres are managed by the City of Memphis Division of Parks, 3,200 by Shelby Farms Park Conservancy, 250 acres by Riverfront Development Corporation, and 1,143 by State of Tennessee Parks Department.

For the past two weeks or so, Center for City Park Excellence has been emailing out the top 10 or 20 cities in various categories and Memphis hasn’t made it to a list yet.

So, rather than blog about this as we have done for many years (by now, you probably know our opinion), we’ll let the numbers speak for themselves and you can form your own opinion.  The rankings are for the 100 largest U.S. cities.

# 78 – Memphis: Spending on parks per resident of city
$ 52 – Spending on parks per resident in Memphis
$ 83 – Average spending for all 100 cities
$135 – Average spending in Atlanta
$116 – Average spending in Nashville
$ 94 – Average spending in Austin

4.7% – Memphis median for parkland as percentage of adjusted city area
9.3% – Median for parkland as percentage of adjusted city area
10.7% – Nashville median
5.9% – Atlanta median
11.1% – Austin median

#64 – Memphis ranking among 100 largest cities for parks per 10,000 residents
3.7 – Average for Parks per 10,000 residents for all 100 cities
3.1 – Parks per 10,000 residents in Memphis
4.5 – Parks per 10,000 residents in Nashville
8.9 – Parks per 10,000 residents in Atlanta
3.7 – Parks per 10,000 residents in Austin
11.6 – Highest: Madison, Wisconsin, parks per 10,000 residents

13.7 – Memphis: total park acres per 1,000 residents
13.1 – Median of low-density cities
52.0 – Total park acres per 1,000 residents in Nashville
11.0 – Total park acres per 1,000 residents in Atlanta
22.9 – Total park acres per 1,000 resident in Austin

#89 – Memphis ranking for percentage of population with park within half-mile walk
41% – Percent of Memphis population with park within half mile walk
69% – Average of 100 largest cities for percent of population with park within half mile walk
38% – Percentage of population with park within half mile in Nashville
66% – Percentage of population with park within half mile in Nashville
48% – Percentage of population with park within half mile in Austin

2.8 – Memphis: Basketball hoops per 10,000 residents
3.1 – Basketball hoops per 10,000 residents in Nashville
2.8 – Basketball hoops per 10,000 residents in Atlanta

0.9 – Memphis: Recreation and senior centers per 20,000 residents
0.8 – Recreation and senior centers per 20,000 residents in Nashville
1.5 – Recreation and senior centers per 20,000 residents in Atlanta

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For more about parks on this blog:
The State of the City Parks Movement, February 17, 2017.
Getting Nathan Bedford Forrest Back To Where He Belongs, June 16, 2016
Removing A Confederate Attic From Downtown’s Memphis Park, July 17, 2015
Finding the Park that Martin Luther King Riverside Park Wants To Be, May 25, 2016
Parks’ Progress Is Memphis Progress, January 25, 2016.
Neighborhood Parks Are Keys To Repeating History, April 17, 2014.
Creating the FedExForum of Riverfront Parks, September 6, 2012.

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