Study: San Antonio has much room to improve when it comes to public parks

While San Antonio excels at creating parks with a lot of acreage, they’re not distributed evenly around the city, meaning many people can’t easily access them. Credit: Instagram / timd_satx

San Antonio talks a big game when it comes to quality of life, but a new study suggests the city continues to treat green space like a luxury item.

San Antonio’s national ranking for access to public parks fell behind that of other major Texas cities in the latest annual ParkScore report from conservation advocacy group the Trust for Public Land (TPL). Indeed, the Alamo City ranked 61st out of the 100 most populous U.S. cities, a four-place drop from the prior year’s report.

Molly Morgan, TPL’s Texas state director, told the Current that while San Antonio’s park system still has much to celebrate, other Texas cities have recently invested more substantially in their green spaces. Irving, Fort Worth, Austin, Plano and Frisco all went up in this year’s rankings.

“It’s not that San Antonio has done anything wrong,” Morgan said. “It’s just that there have been some years of really big investments and commitments and projects coming along, so those markets have seen the fruition of that this year.”

Public parks are essential, according to TPL officials, because they tend to improve mental health, decrease isolation and increase physical fitness levels for cities’ residents.

Dallas’ 10-year project to improve park access and Austin’s initiative to add pocket parks in high-need areas both pushed up those cities’ scores, Morgan said. Without that same kind of robust investment, San Antonio’s park access will likely remain below the national average.

A low score in park access, or the number of residents living within a 10-minute walk to a public park, was the primary drag on San Antonio’s overall ranking. Only 47% of residents here live within a 10-minute walk to a park, compared to the 76% average for all ranked cities.

But access is just one of five factors used in the TPL evaluation. Researchers also measure acreage, investment, amenities and park space equity. San Antonio performed best in park acreage, with a median park size of 10.2 acres, compared to the 5.4-acre national average.

Morgan explained that while San Antonio has many large parks, evidenced by a high acreage score, a lack of smaller parks distributed evenly through the city explains its poor performance on access. On the other three measures, San Antonio performed about average.

Overall, the rankings were a mixed bag for Texas’ five largest cities. Fort Worth climbed 14 places to No. 58 while Austin jumped seven places to No. 47. Meanwhile, Dallas fell four spots to No. 38 but still remains ahead of San Antonio.

Houston is the only top-five Texas city to rank below SA in the analysis. The Bayou City dropped from 66th to 69th.

The point of TPL’s ParkScore rankings is to encourage cities to focus on adding green space and improving their parks, Morgan said. By starting the conversation and providing policymakers with a roadmap, TPL hopes to encourage greater investment in San Antonio parks.

Even so, the report data doesn’t reflect the intangible benefits of individual parks and the impact they can have on their local communities, she added.

“I think you have to remember that the data doesn’t always account for the things that make individual parks special too, and I know that exists in San Antonio,” Morgan said.

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