{"id":673,"date":"2026-05-25T05:06:47","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T05:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=673"},"modified":"2026-05-25T05:06:47","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T05:06:47","slug":"americas-most-popular-third-place-for-social-gathering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=673","title":{"rendered":"America\u2019s most popular \u2018third place\u2019 for social gathering"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>KEY POINTS<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>Trust for Public Land released studies and a survey about Americans&#8217; relationships with parks.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The survey found eight in 10 people say local parks and outdoor spaces are essential.<\/li>\n<li>Other than home or work, parks are the most popular &#8220;third places&#8221; people visit. \u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Are parks and green spaces \u201cnice-to-haves\u201d or are they \u201cneed-to-haves?\u201d Is building a park money lost or money gained? Are such places \u201cessential\u201d infrastructure? <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=671\">The day the music stopped in the Grand Canyon Lodge<\/a><\/p>\n<p>A series of studies was published this week by Trust for Public Land, a national advocacy for local parks and public lands that works to get more folks outside, offering insight about how American communities approach and answer those questions. <\/p>\n<p>TPL conducted an economic review of investments in parks as well as a public opinion poll with YouGov assessing attitudes about local parks. Both were done and published as part of its annual ParkScore index. <\/p>\n<p>The list \u201cranks park systems in the 100 most populous U.S. cities and is widely considered the gold standard for park evaluation.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>For the sixth year in a row, Washington, D.C., topped the list, followed by Irvine, California; Minneapolis; St. Paul and Cincinnati. Cities in the West that broke the top 25 were Denver, Boise and Albuquerque.<\/p>\n<p>While the ParkScore is a great talking point, some of the other results stand out. They are both startling, but also entirely familiar. <\/p>\n<h3>What do people think about parks? <\/h3>\n<p>The biggest take away is that parks and outdoor spaces command overwhelming support from Americans. Other than home or work\/school, parks are the most popular \u201cthird place\u201d people gather. <\/p>\n<p>Some 79% of national respondents in the YouGov poll of 4,000 Americans said that parks are \u201cessential\u201d infrastructure and 88% said that it was important for governments to invest in affordable outdoor recreation. <\/p>\n<p>Like much of the information in the poll, such sentiments were mostly bipartisan. That investment imperative was nearly identical across the political divide, with 86% of Trump voters and 95% of Harris voters agreeing. <\/p>\n<p>Almost 90% of respondents had visited a local park, natural area, schoolyard or trail in the past year. Of those, 88% said they did so for the health benefits. And 92% said that health was a motivating factor to spend more time in green spaces. <\/p>\n<p>The biggest barrier folks had to spending more time outside was someone to go with. Some 46% said they\u2019d go more often if it was with another person. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cLast year, we did another poll and found that the vast majority of people (from) both parties say that parks and outdoor spaces are the place where they\u2019re most likely to interact and talk with people they don\u2019t already know,\u201d said Jim Petterson, Trust Public Land mountain West region vice president and southwest program director. \u201cIn this day and age \u2014 when I\u2019m looking at my phone right now and we\u2019re so immersed in our algorithmic silos \u2014 that\u2019s another reason why these spaces are so important.&#8221; <\/p>\n<h3>Return on investment<\/h3>\n<p>TPL\u2019s mission is to create more places for people to use to access the outdoors. Petterson said he sees the survey results as encouraging federal, state, city, and county partners to recognize the overwhelming support and to step up and invest in parks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe work to create those places that people use, everything from neighborhood parks to national parks and we do this work because it is demonstrably proven that access to the outdoors is very good for our physical health, our mental health, and our social connections,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we have data that says that these outdoor spaces are a solution to those three major problems.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>TPL\u2019s analysis of 11 ground-level economic benefit studies found that, on average, every $1 spent in parks and recreation returns at least $3 in economic benefits every year. <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=653\">How closely did Utahns follow the Mammoth playoff run?<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Those benefits are multiple and include lower healthcare costs, consumer savings on fitness and recreation, increased tax revenue and reduced stormwater treatment costs.<\/p>\n<p>Parks also have a dramatic impact on property values, with tax revenue increasing from $5 million to $100 million depending on the location. Nationally, they also generate more than $200 billion in economic activity and support a million jobs. <\/p>\n<h3>How did Salt Lake City do?<\/h3>\n<p>TPL creates its annual list using a variety of metrics. Those include money invested in park programs, acreage, percent of cities covered in parks (as well as proxies such as basketball courts, splash pads, etc.) and walking distance to a park. The gold standard is whether or not most folks are within half-mile or about a 10-minute walk. <\/p>\n<p>The index includes only data points within city limits. Cities that are adjacent to large allotments of federal public lands \u2014 like Salt Lake City and the Wasatch-Cache National Forest, for example \u2014 do not get the benefit of that proximity in the ParkScore. <\/p>\n<p>It also only ranks what it classifies as the 100 largest cities in the country. The way it organizes that data is based on municipal boundaries, which means that Salt Lake City does not break into its top 100. <\/p>\n<p>Still, Salt Lake City is doing well. It has 101 parks \u2014 covering 9% of its area \u2014 and is immediately adjacent to one of the most visited national forests in the country. <\/p>\n<p>Even without that proximity, some 84% of the city\u2019s residents are within a 10-minute walk of a park. And folks in a lower income bracket have a slight proximity advantage with 86% being within a short walk over those in a wither higher incomes at 82%. <\/p>\n<p>In some cities, 100% of the population lives within a 10-minute walk to a park. Petterson said he hopes that would encourage other cities to work toward the same result. <\/p>\n<h3>Something to rally around<\/h3>\n<p>Petterson said parks are core to a city\u2019s value. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe recognize that parks and outdoor spaces are a core part of what makes a city livable. People don\u2019t say, \u2018I\u2019m going to move to Boston or to Salt Lake City because I love the sewer system,\u2019\u201d Petterson said. \u201cThey\u2019re going to say, \u2018Salt Lake City is awesome because we\u2019ve got the Wasatch Front and I\u2019ve got neighborhood parks down the street.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The survey found that 73% of those polled live in a ParkScore city where they said they are feeling or are anticipating \u201cnegative impacts\u201d from recent federal budget cuts. <\/p>\n<p>Petterson said the TPL data will help elected officials and residents rally around something that has broad bipartisan support. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom what I\u2019ve seen and heard \u2014 and we do a lot of polling because we do a lot of ballot measure work around the country \u2014 I really feel like the outdoors, public lands and parks are one of those things that people can rally around,&#8221; Petterson said. \u201cPeople are hungry for something that we can unify around.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The organization polls in liberal and conservative places, Petterson said, adding he has seen people vote to tax themselves higher to pay for outdoor recreation in as many as 82% of local elections.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s very bipartisan, and I think that our elected officials \u2014 in some cases \u2014 are lagging behind the public in this area,&#8221; he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a big opportunity for all of us to come together and say, \u2018We can fight about all kinds of things, but getting people outside physically active for their mental health benefits and their social connection benefits is something that we can be for.\u2019 That\u2019s really needed right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=651\">Opinion: How leisure, well spent, can lead to greater civility<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What city has the most parks? Do cities invest enough in local parks? What cities have the best parks? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":672,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>America\u2019s most popular \u2018third place\u2019 for social gathering - American Movers Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=673\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"America\u2019s most popular \u2018third place\u2019 for social gathering - American Movers Hub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What city has the most parks? 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