Despite the prevalence of parks in Milwaukee County, the low per-person annual spending caused Milwaukee to slip in a national ranking to 16th. Only seven cities had lower spending in the study of 40 U.S. cities by San Francisco-based Trust for Public Land, a land conservation and park advocacy organization.
Brew City tied with Kansas City and Phoenix, but both of those scored higher on the services and investments metric, which included per-person spending. Kansas City spent $135.06 per person, and Phoenix spent $128.5 per person. San Francisco took home first overall place and spent a whopping $292 spent per person on parks.
Milwaukee also scored low on playgrounds with just 1.19 for every 10,000 residents. Phoenix had 1.04, and Kansas City had 2.17.
Where Milwaukee excelled was in the access metric – in which it ranked 9th. Almost nine out of 10 Milwaukee residents live within a half mile of a park.
Not enough numbers for you? Here are some more:
• Total park acreage: 15,189 acres
• People served per park acre: 34
• Oldest park: Cathedral Square Park, established 1835
• Largest park: Whitnall Park, 625 acres
• Most-visited park: Veterans Park
• Median park size: 7.3 acres
• Park land as % of city area: 9.2 percent
• Spending per resident: $59.54
• Playgrounds per 10,000: 1.19
