The Florida C. Dwight Memorial Playground in LaVilla has been renovated to include new jungle gyms and play equipment. It is part of the LaVilla Link, the first segment of the Emerald Trail project. The 30-mile walk and pathway project will connect 14 neighborhoods and 21 parks. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today
Published on May 21, 2025 at 1:09 pm
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Jacksonville climbed higher this year in a national ranking of parks systems.
The U.S. Trust for Public Land ranked Jacksonville’s parks 64th of the 100 biggest cities in the country. That was an improvement from 69th last year.
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The nonprofit assigns every city a score based on five factors: access, investment, amenities, acreage and equity.
The 2025 report says Jacksonville’s rise in the rankings was due mostly to improvement in park acreage and investment. The city spent $129 per person on parks this year, well above last year’s $113. (The national Park Score city average is $133 per person).
When it comes to acreage, the survey showed 19% of Jacksonville is dedicated to parks, which is well above the national average of 9.3%.
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Jacksonville scored well on amenities, with more basketball hoops than almost any big city in the country. It scored well with a high number of recreation and senior centers, restrooms and sports fields.
Will Klein from the Trust for Public Land complimented Jacksonville.
”You know, when you think about those things — basketball hoops, sports fields, restrooms and rec centers — you’re probably one of the most active cities in the country as far as playing sports and being able to get outside,” Klein said.
On the down side, Jacksonville received below average marks for park access. Only 35% of Jacksonville residents live within a 10-minute walk of a park, which is below the national average of 76%. (Nationally, about 1 in 3 people, including 28 million children, don’t have access to a park within a 10-minute walk of home.)
The survey also indicates that Jacksonville is in the bottom third of the cities on investment.
“It doesn’t have any dedicated funding for parks and recreation, meaning tax revenue that’s specifically set aside for parks, and that’s something we see that the top cities have, Klein said. “Seven of the top 10 park systems in the country have dedicated funds for parks and rec.”
Klein said it’s exciting that Jacksonville is in the process of updating its parks master plan, which hasn’t been updated for more than two decades. Of the 100 biggest cities in the country, Jacksonville’s master plan is the most outdated, Klein said.
He lauded the city for asking people to voice their opinion about what they want to see in their parks as “incredible and a great opportunity for folks to make their voices heard.”
As far as other big Florida cities, St. Petersburg, Miami and Tampa all did better than Jacksonville in the rankings, though Jacksonville edged out 69th-placed Orlando.
The top ranked cities nationally were Washington, D.C., followed by Irvine, California; Minneapolis; and Cincinnati.
Also included in this year’s report is a new public opinion research report of how residents value public parks and use them frequently.
Those survey details are included in Parks, The Great Unifiers, which describes how four major U.S. cities — Atlanta; Chicago; and Fort Worth and Colorado Springs, Colorado — have invested in parks to help bring people together.
According to the trust’s research, a plurality of Americans — including both Trump and Harris voters — wish they’d spent more time outdoors last year than anywhere else, including home, place of worship or the gym.
