05 27 25 The Trust for Public Land's Jim Petterson on Denver's ParkScore Ranking

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is Colorado's Morning News Marty Lens, Gina gandecod Morning.
Denver is rated the nation's tenth best big city parks
system by the twenty twenty five Parks Scored Index. That
according to the Trust for Public Land.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
And joining us now on the KWA Common Spirit Health
Hotline to talk more about it is Trust for Public Land,
Vice President of the Mountain West Region.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
It's Jim Peterson. Jim, thank you so much for your
time this morning.

Speaker 4 (00:21):
Hey, good morning, Marty and Gina.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Before we talk a little bit about Denver and where
it is in the rankings, how it positioned in the rankings,
tell us a little bit about how ParkScore is ranked
and categorized when it comes to these cities.

Speaker 4 (00:34):
Absolutely, we look using a lot of GIS data and
input from local cities like Denver. We look at six
different measures. That's park access, the percentage of people that
live within a ten minute walk of a park, park equity,
which looks at how that breaks down by demographic groups,
the acreage of the city that's devoted to parks, how

(00:56):
much money per Capiti Citi's investment parks, and finally, a
proxy for a quality of parks by looking at a
variety of different park amenities and creating a ranking based
on that.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Jim, before we get into the actual rankings, I am curious,
and it may be obvious to some and even to
me in some instances, but why are parks in investments
in parks for cities? Why is that important?

Speaker 4 (01:20):
It goes directly to the quality of life for folks
living in a park. Number one, It's a parks really
should be thought of as green infrastructure. You know, I
never chose a place to live based on a city
sewer system, but if I'm going to be living close
to a park, that's a huge draw for me. And
then second, spending time outdoors is proven through study after

(01:43):
study after study to be excellent for helping our mental
health as well as our physical health. So being outdoors
is super important.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
Okay, So, like we mentioned, Denver is rated the nation's
tenth best big city park system by the ParkScore Index.

Speaker 3 (01:58):
What helped Denver get the tenth spot?

Speaker 4 (02:01):
You know, the number one reason I think that the
city is roared into the top ten for the first
time ever is because Denver voters back in twenty eighteen
voted to tax themselves to invest in the park system here.
They voted for a quarter cent sales tax increase and
that has made all the difference in terms of investing
in new parks and helping make sure that now ninety

(02:22):
six percent of Denver residents live within a ten minute
walk of a park.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
I'm assuming in wanting parks are living by them, since
you allude to that, there's a selfish reason of financial
interest as well. Home values and property values are probably
higher round parks. I'm assuming that's the case.

Speaker 4 (02:39):
Yeah, that can happen for sure. Another tremendous benefit of
being within courts proximity to a park is those neighborhoods
are cooler. We've done a lot of research that shows
that within a certain distance from a park there is
cooling benefits, and that's really important in our semi arid
climate when it gets very warm in the summertime.

Speaker 3 (02:59):
Jim did some other Colorado city's rank.

Speaker 4 (03:03):
There's two other cities in Colorado in the top ten
I mean, excuse me, in the top one hundred park
systems in the country, and that's Aurora and Colorado Springs.
Aurora is holding steady and this year at number forty eight,
about eighty nine percent of Aurora residents live within a
ten minute walk of a park, and the Colorado Springs

(03:23):
is dropped a little bit from number fifty two to
number fifty five. They have about seventy seven percent of
their residents live with then a ten minute walk of
a park.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
Are Denver, Aurora the Springs are. They are those cities
doing enough to enhance and add parks and do the
like to where they can move up in the rankings
and add value to people living in those areas.

Speaker 4 (03:43):
Yeah, I think they are. Denver in particular has created
a few new parks, which has helped the ranking of
getting the number of residents within a ten minute walk
of a park. Aurora and the Springs really are maintaining
and holding steady. Aurora dropped a couple of pin point,
not because they're doing anything wrong, but because other cities
are making more significant investments. So we are doing well

(04:07):
by most measures with our large cities in parks. You know,
the Colorado Springs could do a little bit more in
terms of making their park system more accessible to all residents,
but all of them have excellent park systems.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
Jim, with a quick minute we have left, give us
the top three and what really makes them rank so
high in the ParkScore Index.

Speaker 4 (04:27):
Well, number one was sorry, number one, I think so
much about Colorado. Number one was Irvine, California. I'm sorry, Washington, DC.
And you can imagine why they're doing so well. They
have a great combination of city in federal parks. Irvine,
California is number two. They're making significant investments in new parks.

(04:50):
Number three Minneapolis. They are in Minneapolis and Saint Paul
are always in the top ten. And another interesting one
in the top ten in San Francisco. That is the
only city besides Washington and Irvine that has one hundred
percent of their residence within a ten minute walk of
a great park.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
That is something else. Trust for Public Land, Vice President
Mountain West Region. It's Jim Peterson. Jim, thanks for joining us,
you bet

Speaker 4 (05:15):
Thanks for having me.