CITY PARKS

What Was Measured?
The number of acres of developed parks per 1,000 population in each San Mateo County city are shown.  Developed parks are maintained areas that include community parks, mini parks, and neighborhood parks.  They often have amenities such as play equipment, picnic tables and bathrooms.  School playgrounds are not included, nor are city undeveloped lands, open-space acres, watershed lands, or adjacent county or state parks.

Why Is It Important?
The nearby availability of areas for recreation and enjoying nature add to our quality of life.  Recreation helps build strong bodies and closeness to nature gives us a grounding in who and what we are.  In a sustainable community, park areas need to be accessible by biking, walking or using public transit.

What Was Found?
County residents are fortunate to have a great diversity Of local, county, state and national parks located nearby.  However, for most residents these areas can only be reached by car.  Peninsula cities were built many years ago, long before national standards were set, which call for 6-10.5 acres per 1,000 residents.  Park acreages for cities in San Mateo County range from 0-3.56 acres per 1,000 population.  Even with the addition of school ground acreage, undeveloped, or open-space acreage within each city, all cities still come short of the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) recommended acreage.  Foster City, which is the county's newest city, has more park acreage than older cities.

What Is The Trend?
All cities are deficient when compared to the NRPA recommendations.  The figures in the graph are a beginning benchmark for the county.

Source: Acreage figures come from each city.

Researcher: Marcia Pagels