{"id":40009,"date":"2025-11-06T01:03:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T01:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/40009\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T01:03:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T01:03:17","slug":"long-beach-loses-nearly-3-of-all-park-space-in-four-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/40009\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Beach Loses Nearly 3% of All Park Space in Four Years\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Park quality in Long Beach falling, new study reveals\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Long Beach has seen the second-biggest decrease in ParkScore in the US\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0California is home to three top 10 cities\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Richmond,\u00a0Virginia, has seen the biggest improvement\u00a0<\/p>\n

A new study has revealed where urban park quality is slipping across the country.<\/p>\n

Fence contractor\u00a0R&T Fence<\/a>\u00a0analyzed the Trust for Public Land\u2019s\u00a0ParkScore\u00a0ranking\u00a0in both 2025 and 2021, to see which US cities had seen the biggest drops in overall scores. The\u00a0ParkScore\u00a0ranks cities on five characteristics: acreage, access, investment, amenities, and equity.<\/p>\n

Long Beach\u00a0ranks second, with a decrease in ParkScore of\u00a08.2\u00a0since 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In\u00a0the\u00a02025\u00a0rankings, Long Beach\u00a0placed\u00a056th\u00a0overall, with a score of 50.8. In 2021, the city placed 31st, with a final score of 59.0.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Like\u00a0Aurora, the biggest change for Long Beach was in the investment category. Where the city previously scored an impressive 90 out of 100, spending $175 per person on\u00a0park\u00a0spaces, this dropped to 51 out of 100 in 2025, spending a total of $158 per capita.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Acreage also\u00a0took a hit\u00a0in the ratings.\u00a0Parkland as a percentage of city\u00a0area\u00a0fell from 10.1%,\u00a0with a score of 49 out of 100 in 2021,\u00a0to 7.1% in 2025,\u00a0with a score of 29 out of 100.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Anaheim\u00a0is fourth,\u00a0with a decrease in\u00a0ParkScore\u00a0of\u00a07.8\u00a0since 2021.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Anaheim has seen one of the biggest drops in overall ranking. The city\u00a0placed\u00a058th\u00a0in 2021, with an overall score of 48.4,\u00a0dropping to\u00a081st\u00a0in 2025, with a final score of\u00a040.6.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

While points for most categories stayed about the same, the investment category declined significantly. In 2021, Anaheim received a score of\u00a070 out of 100, spending $140 per resident on publicly accessible parks. In 2025, this\u00a0fell to just $89 per resident, earning a score of 21 out of 100.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Eighth is\u00a0Los Angeles\u00a0with a decrease in\u00a0ParkScore\u00a0of\u00a05.0\u00a0since 2021.\u00a0The city fell from 71st\u00a0in 2021 to 90th\u00a0in 2025,\u00a0with investment and equity as the leading reasons.<\/p>\n

Commenting on the findings, Jeff Becka, President of\u00a0R&T Fence<\/a>\u00a0said, \u201cWe\u2019re\u00a0seeing a clear pattern of park quality slipping across multiple US cities, and that decline\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0limited to one area. Drops in investment often trigger wider effects\u00a0like\u00a0fewer amenities, less maintenance, and reduced access for\u00a0residents,\u00a0but they also highlight how interconnected these categories are.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cCity parks\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0just enhance the quality of\u00a0life but\u00a0are essential infrastructure. As populations grow and urban areas become denser,\u00a0maintaining\u00a0these spaces will only get harder.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile some cities have seen their park quality slip, the good news is that these trends can be reversed. Improvements in amenities, creative funding models, and community involvement have all helped cities in the past climb back up the rankings. The key is to recognize the importance of these spaces before small declines turn into lasting setbacks.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Park quality in Long Beach falling, new study reveals\u00a0 \u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Long Beach has seen the second-biggest decrease in ParkScore…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,18201,132,27299,19187],"class_list":{"0":"post-40009","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-long-beach","8":"tag-long-beach","9":"tag-long-beach-headlines","10":"tag-long-beach-mayor","11":"tag-long-beach-news","12":"tag-long-beach-parks","13":"tag-mayor-rex-richardson"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}