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Albuquerque Gets High Score for Park Space

A new scorecard for park systems in the nation’s largest 40 cities places Albuquerque near the top of the heap.

The rating system, developed by the Trust for Public Land, considers three factors: total park acreage, public access to those parks and spending on parks.  Albuquerque missed the top ten by just one.  But TPL’s Greg Hiner says that score places it within a stone’s throw of cities like New York, Seattle and Philadelphia. 

"You know, those are big, metropolitcan cities and you don't always think of Albuqerque in that same breadth," he says. "But here they are!"

Hiner credits Albuquerque’s open space system for giving it a particularly good score in the park size category.  But the city ranked near the bottom of the list for spending on park services.

The report also includes a mapindicating which parts of the city are in greatest need of parks and open space.