Praxis in Landscape Architecture

The Trust for Public Land just released the 2011 City Parks Facts report. Among the interesting findings:

• 120 parks were added in the 100 largest U.S. cities in 2010, even as 3.9% of the park work force was cut.
• The most parks per capita are found in Madison, WI, with 12.7 per 10,000 residents, with Cincinnati, St. Petersburg, Anchorage, and Buffalo following.
• The greatest number of playgrounds per capita are found in Madison, Virginia Beach, Corpus Christi, Cincinnati, and Norfolk.
• There were 110 fewer public swimming pools in operation in 2010 than in 2009, and this is the only facility type to decrease.
• 20,000 community garden plots are found in the 100 largest cities, with the cold cities of Minneapolis and Madison leading the way, having roughly 33-36 garden plots per 10,000 people.
• Minneapolis has 13.3 acres of parkland per 1,000 residents, considered a relatively high amount given the city’s dense development. Otherwise, spread-out cities like Anchorage and Albuquerque have higher rates of parkland per resident.
• $200 or more per resident is the cost of parkland in Minneapolis, Washington, D.C., and Seattle, compared to a median of $84.