St. Paul’s public parks again ranked No. 2 in the nation

Frederick Melo, Pioneer Press
·4 min read

St. Paul has the second-best public parks system in the nation, according to the Trust for Public Land, which has released its annual ranking of 100 municipal park systems and found Minnesota’s capital city to again be second to one.

Washington, D.C., dubbed the “defending champion” by Trust for Public Land officials, took top honors for the second year in a row, while Minneapolis climbed two spots from fifth place to third following new park openings. The results can be found at https://www.tpl.org/.

St. Paul added three new dog parks citywide and a series of public amenities at Highland Bridge, the former site of the Twin Cities Ford auto manufacturing plant, which is now home to a skate park, a dog park, multiple playgrounds and two large, stormwater-fed water features.

“It’s such a beautiful space,” said Sophie Vorhoff, Minnesota state director for the Trust for Public Land. “Seeing the skating, and the combination of nature play and programming to reach everyone, it’s quite exciting to see the work that St. Paul is doing to create spaces that are welcoming to the community.”

10-minute walk to a park

In St. Paul, 99% of residents live within a 10-minute walk of a public park, as do 98% of residents in Minneapolis. That’s well above the ParkScore city average of 76%. Both cities also exceeded the national average for park investment, spending more than twice the national ParkScore average per capita.

Both cities, said Vorhoff, offer a growing number of activities and amenities in the parks, including culturally-sensitive offerings such as Hmong top-spinning (or tuj lub) courts.

“That is a place where both St. Paul and Minneapolis have shined,” Vorhoff said. “Nature play, programming for youth and seniors, lowering the barrier to entry by waiving fees for sports is some of the areas where we’ve really seen St. Paul and Minneapolis really leading the country.”

She noted that the city is working with the St. Paul school district to further improve amenities and increase public access at schoolyards during non-school hours, beginning with Maxfield Elementary School on Victoria Street and Eastern Heights Elementary School on Margaret Street.

St. Paul recently opened a skate park in Dayton’s Bluff, and more park space is planned at the Heights, the development that will replace the former Hillcrest Country Club on the city’s East Side.

Less park space in low-income areas

One area where D.C. outshines the Twin Cities is in equity access, a metric that was added in 2021. St. Paul offers 32% less park space per person in neighborhoods of color compared to white neighborhoods, and 34% less park space in low-income neighborhoods than wealthier ones.

By that metric, Minneapolis fares even more poorly. It offers 59% less park space in neighborhoods of color, 65% less for low-income areas.

Those disparities don’t exist in D.C., which maintains 13% more park space in neighborhoods of color, and 7% more park space in low-income neighborhoods. That said, the index doesn’t compare parks amenities for communities of color versus white neighborhoods, or low-income areas versus higher-income areas, which could yield different scores.

“In all three cities, almost everyone lives within a 10-minute walk of a park, regardless of what demographic they’re in,” said Will Klein, associate director of parks research for the Trust for Public Land. “But when you start looking at space, there’s less park space when you get there. We know it’s not all about the quantity of the space but quality, in terms of what’s there when you get there. That’s not factored into the rankings yet.”

National park spending

Nationally, municipal park spending has picked up about $1 billion, though it remains below where it was in 2007, before the Great Recession, after adjusting for inflation. Park spending in large cities such as New York and Chicago remains fairly flat, Klein said, while it rebounded in mid-sized cities after dipping during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some of that rebound has been spurred by philanthropic support in cities such as Memphis and Detroit, where major parks projects have relied heavily on donors and foundations.

“For the first time in a couple years, there’s glimmers of hope in terms of parks investment, but it’s tough in an inflationary environment,” Klein said.

To celebrate the capital city’s enviable rank, as well as the 174th anniversary of the city’s parks system, the St. Paul Parks Conservancy and St. Paul Parks and Recreation will host a birthday celebration from noon to 1 p.m. on Wednesday in downtown St. Paul’s Rice Park. Rice and Irvine parks were both platted in May 1849, making them the oldest of the city’s 182 parks.

Among the expected announcements is a donation from Boy Scout troops that held a winter fundraiser to help renovate local playgrounds. Minnesota United FC will also announce a contribution for improvements at Midway Peace Park on Griggs Street.

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