{"id":303002,"date":"2026-05-21T14:24:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T14:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/303002\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T14:24:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T14:24:07","slug":"sa-lands-no-7-spot-on-new-list-of-best-texas-park-systems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/303002\/","title":{"rendered":"SA lands No. 7 spot on new list of best Texas park systems"},"content":{"rendered":"

San Antonio and its stellar parks have been ranked the No. 7 best park system in Texas, according to the newly released ParkScore Index<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Every year, the Trust for Public Land, a land conservation nonprofit, rates the park systems in the 100 largest American cities based on their accessibility, equity, acreage, investment, and amenities.<\/p>\n

The best park systems in the country are located in Washington, D.C. (No. 1); Irvine, California (No. 2); Minneapolis (No. 3) and St. Paul (No. 4), Minnesota; and Cincinnati, Ohio (No. 5).<\/p>\n

San Antonio’s No. 61 ParkScore ranking in 2026 is slightly lower than its No. 57 ranking last year<\/a>, but the Trust for Public Land says that’s because of “upward moves from other cities,” rather than negative changes to the local park system.<\/p>\n

The organization said the median size of a park in San Antonio spans 10.2 acres, or nearly double the national ParkScore average of 5.4 acres. However, many San Antonians lack adequate access to a park, which is a crucial factor in the report’s methodology. Currently, less than half of all San Antonio residents live within a 10-minute walk of a park, compared to the national average of 76 percent. The city also invests less money to maintain its park system \u2014 about $152 per resident \u2014 than the national average of $154 per resident.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in Texas, Plano<\/a> and Frisco in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex boast the best park systems in the state.<\/p>\n

Molly Morgan, the Texas State Director and Associate Vice President of Trust for Public Land, said in the release that Texas’ high-scoring performance in the annual index has proved that it is making park accessibility a statewide priority.<\/p>\n

“Cities across the Lone Star State are making serious investments, opening new parks, partnering with school districts, and closing gaps that have existed for decades,” Morgan said. “They\u2019re showing what\u2019s possible when Texas gets serious about parks.”<\/p>\n

Morgan added that there’s still more work to be done to increase park accessibility to the 9 million Texans who don’t have a park within a 10-minute walk of their homes.<\/p>\n

Here’s how the rest of Texas stacks up in the national ranking:<\/p>\n

No. 13 \u2013 PlanoNo. 30 \u2013 FriscoNo. 38 \u2013 DallasNo. 45 \u2013 ArlingtonNo. 47 \u2013 AustinNo. 58 \u2013 Fort WorthNo. 61 \u2013 El Paso (tied with San Antonio)No. 64 \u2013 GarlandNo. 69 \u2013 HoustonNo. 71 \u2013 IrvingNo. 72 \u2013 Corpus ChristiNo. 77 \u2013 LaredoNo. 96 \u2013 Lubbock<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Antonio and its stellar parks have been ranked the No. 7 best park system in Texas, according…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303003,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6534,109485,542,82,84,83,35786],"class_list":["post-303002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-parks","tag-parkscore-report","tag-reports","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-trust-for-public-land"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}