Nearly every single San Franciscan lives within a 10-minute walk to a park, study finds

Nearly every single resident of San Francisco lives within a 10-minute walk to a park, a new study has found. That's an incredible feat: In the average U.S. city, only 72% of residents have such a short trip to their local park.

San Francisco's parklands are so exemplary, it ranked seventh (of the 100 largest U.S. cities) on The Trust for Public Land's annual ParkScore Index. The nonprofit, which is devoted to creating parks and protecting land, devises its annual ranking around four factors: park access, acreage, investment and amenities.

Though San Francisco's parks are comparatively small to those in other big cities, at a median size of 1.3 acres, the city makes up for that by reserving 20% of its land for parks.

Also of note: An annual median of $314 per resident is spent to maintain its parks — $273,472,338 in total. To put this into perspective: The national median expenditure per resident is $83. These figures include public spending, nonprofit spending and volunteer hours.

You can see how San Francisco — and three other Bay Area cities — scored in the other categories in the above gallery. 

Nationally, investment on parks reached $7.9 billion among the 100 ParkScore cities rated in 2019 — a $250 million increase over last year. Those millions were put to good work; the percentage of people within a 10-minute walk from a park increased by 2% in the last year.

That's not quite satisfactory to The Trust for Public Land.

"As few as 8,300 new parks in places where they are needed most would close the gap in park access in our 100 largest cities. At current rates of investment in park creation, it will take more than 50 years to build enough new parks to fill this gap," said Breece Robertson, Chief Research and Innovation Officer at The Trust for Public Land, in a statement.

The nonprofit tracks the factors in its ranking by carefully mapping each city's parkland using Geographic Information Systems computer mapping technology, which highlight where there are gaps in park accessibility. The system considers the location of park entrances and physical obstacles to access, like a highway without an underpass.

The Trust for Public Land intends the data to guide park improvement efforts and to pinpoint areas where new parks are most needed. You can find interactive maps for the 100 cities on The Trust's website. 

Read Michelle Robertson's latest stories and send her news tips at michelle.robertson@sfgate.com. 

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