Rating Tucson's Park System (Phoenix, Mesa: appointed, 2014, new home)

[Jukesgrrl]

A non-profit organization called The Trust for Public Land rates the park systems of America's 60 largest cities on its website. Phoenix New Times has an article about where various Arizona cities fall on the list. The Trust bases its analysis on what it considers to be "the three most important characteristics of an effective park system: acreage, services and investment, and access." The Trust defines good access as residents being within a 10-minute walk to a park.

You can go to the Trust's website to see not only how the 60 largest cities rank, and you can also get a thumbnail analysis of why any city earned the score it did.
ParkScore

Tucson ranked 42nd on the list, similar to the rating given Atlanta. Not great, mainly because Tucson's park land as a percentage of total city area is only 2.7%. In comparison, Phoenix devotes 15% of its city area to parks. On the other hand, our city has 3.6 playgrounds per 10,000 residents and Phoenix only has 1.1. Phoenix ranked a respectable 28th on the list, in the mix with Tampa and Honolulu. The top spot on the list is held by Minneapolis, with New York City coming in second.

Mesa, Arizona's third city on the list of America's 60 most populous cities, ranked 56th.
Mesa, Arizona, Parks System Named Among the Worst; Phoenix Average | Phoenix New Times

What do you think about Tucson's park system? Our oldest and most-visited park is Gene C. Reid Park, established in 1965. Tucson's largest park, at 346 acres, is Christopher Columbus Park on Silverbell Road. It has a lake and a dog park.

[beTucsonan]

Funny, I was just talking about the parks this morning as I was being driven to the airport to end a two-week trip to Tucson. To sum up: I am not a fan.

I suppose the place to start would be, as mentioned, the relative shortage of park space. Growing up in Tucson I was near enough to Reid Park and it's many facilities to not think much of the rest of the city. When I got older and moved to other parts of town, I never thought about parks - they just weren't there to be thought about. Now, having spent a decade in Pittsburgh (which wasn't included due to an odd definition of "the 60 largest cities") I am accustomed to having ready access to large and beautiful city parks no matter where I am in the city. I do not look forward to not having much in the way of Parks when I return to Tucson.

I also think the parks system in Tucson does an abysmal job of showcasing Tucson's natural beauty. Most of the parks are poorly maintained grass with some odd, non-native trees splashed around some aging playground equipment. It would be nice to see more locations like Agua Caliente, and even parts of Fort Lowell park that try to take advantage of their desert location. I did not get the opportunity to visit it this time around, but Rio Vista may be what I am looking for in that regard.

Are the river bike trails included on this list? These are, though not unique to Tucson, fantastic resources which should be taken into consideration.

[Saguarogirl507]

I see that here in Boston we are number 3. We do have many beautiful parks. But not much in surrounding beauty. I have to say that I have never visited any parks in Tucson since it seems to be surrounded by one giant park of mountains and desert. Maybe the powers that be figure Tucson doesn't need parks because of all that beauty. Can't say for sure. Just a theory.

[beTucsonan]

Originally Posted by RobertaWa

Maybe the powers that be figure Tucson doesn't need parks because of all that beauty. Can't say for sure. Just a theory.

I sure hope that's not what they are thinking, but it's definitely a possibility. I am a bit of a Negative Nancy, so I'd say they are likely ignoring it since it doesn't seem to be at the top of most Tucsonan's minds and Tucson's leaders have never really been progressive on quality of life issues. Living there twenty-some years I never heard people complain about the parks situation - it was only after leaving town that I realized how great a good parks system can be.

[ender554]

I am a huge fan of teh parks here. There are tons of them until you start getting in to the urban sprawl of the city and the density of them starts to reduce drastically. Where I live near the University I have 3 parks in a short walk from my home plus the U itself is an arboretum that actually has lots of land space that quite resembles a park including walking trails and exercise stops. I think what happened is as the city expanded east and north parks became an afterthought to those expansions. I think this was due to the fact that each time it expanded the thought was who needs a park it is on the edge of wilderness. Well decades later there are significant gaps in recreation areas. I think the park experience here is going to reflect a great deal of how old their neighborhood is. So here where the houses are built in the 20's - 40's parks are abundant and I utilize them often, but the further east or north or now even south you go the park experience diminishes greatly.

[bongo_x]

I’m not sure about these ratings. We are moving to Tucson and are concerned about the seeming lack of parks and have been trying to get a feel for it. Here in the Atlanta suburbs they seem great to us, big, nice, and everywhere. Having lived in Los Angeles the parks were pretty poor but only rates slightly below either place.

[beTucsonan]

I will say that if you are used to big, nice parks everywhere then you will be disappointed in Tucson from that perspective. The upside (as RobertaWa pointed out) is that you have easy access to nature anyhow ... just drive a bit in any direction and there's something pretty great to explore. It just won't be a city park.

I understand your concern. Moving back to Tucson from Pittsburgh I've seen both sides of the good parks/bad parks coin and I wish I could bring my parks with me!!

[Jukesgrrl]

I was shocked not to see Pittsburgh high on this rating list given the huge size and number of parks in Pittsburgh. I checked their criteria, though, and the city of Pittsburgh, taken without the rest of the metro, didn't qualify in size to be rated. It's a shame. They should get some attention for their extraordinary park system. New Orleans is another city that doesn't get enough attention for its parks. I never hear anyone remark about them, yet that was one of the first things I noticed about NO.

[Marcy1210]

Colorado had three cities on the list -- Denver, Aurora (a suburb of Denver) and Colorado Springs. Like Tucson or Phoenix, the three cities in Colorado are right up against the mountains and have abundant wilderness, trails, state and National Parks nearby, yet, they have many more city parks than Phoenix and Tucson. They all have major issues with urban/suburban sprawl, yet I believe that for every new subdivision that is developed in Colorado, schools and parks are a major consideration, whereas in Tucson, that doesn't seem to be important to developers.

I know that when Colorado Springs was founded, there wasn't a tree to be found as it was on the edge of the prairie and not quite into the foothills, so Gen. Palmer, the founder, mandated that every home must have a tree planted in front of it. When we built a home in COS in the early 90's, the city provided a tree for each new home in our subdivision, and we were given a huge tree allowance by the developer, so on our postcard sized lot (80' x 120') we had 10 trees. 23 years later, that new subdivision is a shaded, lush area. The developer was also mandated to set aside so many acres for a community park and to build an elementary school. As far as I know, Tucson has no such mandates of developers.

[New2Tucson]

Originally Posted by Suckson

.........I also think the parks system in Tucson does an abysmal job of showcasing Tucson's natural beauty. Most of the parks are poorly maintained grass with some odd, non-native trees splashed around some aging playground equipment. It would be nice to see more locations like Agua Caliente, and even parts of Fort Lowell park that try to take advantage of their desert location. I did not get the opportunity to visit it this time around, but Rio Vista may be what I am looking for in that regard.

I went out to Aqua Caliente park last month. It is drying up. There used to be 6 or 7 ponds full of water. Now there is only the main pond closest to the parking lot. The water level was low, and it was full of turtles. Turtles everywhere. A guy I talked to said the drought and all of the homes that have been built around the area has caused the ponds to dry up. I don't know if this is true, but it sounds logical.

It was still a nice place to walk around (first time), but don't expect a lot of water.