Madison’s parks are among the top 10 in the country according to a new list from a national open space advocacy group.
The Trust for Public Land ranked Madison 10th (tying with Cincinatti) out of 100 municipal parks systems in the country’s largest cities, based on a set of three criteria including amenities such as playgrounds and basketball hoops.
Adrian Benepe, the trust’s director of park development said this is one of the reasons Madison did so well in the rankings.
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“I believe its top in the nation in terms of dog parks per capita and maybe also top in the nation for basketball hoops,” he said. ” At any rate, (Madison parks) max out in possible points in three out of the four amenity categories.”
Cities were also ranked on how many residents lived within a half mile of a park and how much parkland a city has, said Benepe.
“It’s quite strong on park land as a percentage of city area,” he said. “Almost 13 percent of Madison is dedicated to public park land and we’re not even counting, say, open space, you know, at the university and other academic campuses.”
However, Madison lost points for having few recreational and senior centers.
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