Dallas has some great parks. Klyde Warren Park, notably, and the Continental Bridge Park, which opens next month.
But our city doesn’t have nearly as much parkland as other great cities, what we do have is not as accessible, and we don’t invest as much in green space, according to a the Trust for Public Land. The trust recently released its Park Score results for 2014, which uses three metrics, including the ratio of pubic land to population, to rank cities.
We’re in the bottom half. Dallas ranks 36th out of 60 major metropolitan cities in the quality and number of its parks. Minneapolis was the top-ranked city. Compared to the rest of Texas, Dallas is typical. Austin ranks 33 and Houston ranks 48.
Even though we’ve got some flashy parks, Dallas is behind, Dallas Parks director Willis Winters told the Dallas Morning News.
The city has added 570 acres of parkland since 2002, but we haven’t had a bond election since 2006, and we don’t have the money to buy and develop parkland, he says.
