Photo by flipperman 75

Whether the National Mall, Rock Creek Park or some of the smaller pocket parks that dot the city’s landscape, D.C. has always been proud of its green spaces. And according to rankings published by the Trust for Public Land, D.C.’s parks are fifth-best in the nation.

The rankings measured sheer acreage, services and investment, and access to parks for the country’s 40 largest cities; San Francisco topped the list, followed by Sacramento, New York, Boston, and D.C. According to the rankings, D.C. has 7,464 acres worth of parks, and 77 people are served per park-acre. Roughly 20 percent of the city’s land is devoted to parks, $303.45 is spent per resident on parks and there are 1.68 playgrounds for every 10,000 residents.

In terms of raw scores, D.C. got 86 out of 120 possible points; San Francisco led the charge with 89. Ranked behind D.C. are Portland, Virginia Beach, San Diego, Seattle, and Philadelphia.

Of course, D.C. is in a very different situation than many of its competitors—the majority of our parks are federally controlled. In terms of parks in D.C., 6,776 acres are federal, and only 688 acres are city-owned. In New York, by contrast, 29,000 of the city’s 38,000 acres of parkland are owned and run by the city itself. That the District has so much federal land is both wonderful and terrible—for every Rock Creek Park we get neglected neighborhood parks that the city can’t do anything about.