For 5th Year, Minneapolis Park System Ranked Best In U.S.

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Let it be known: Minneapolis has the best parks system of any city in the United States.

For the fifth straight year, The Trust for Public Land has placed the City of Lakes on the top of its national ParkScore index.

One reason Minneapolis beats out all of the nation's other cities over and over again is that its parks are accessible to nearly everyone, no matter their age or income bracket.

According to the data used to determine a ParkScore, 97 percent of people in Minneapolis are able to walk to a park in 10 minutes.

Yeah Minneapolis! The city has the best park system in the U.S., according to the 6th annual #ParkScore index https://t.co/DhWffR1LjY pic.twitter.com/X3KW7EXnuw

— TrustforPublicLand (@tpl_org) May 24, 2017

The city also scores highly on nearly all the other factors evaluated when determining a ParkScore, such as number of basketball hoops per 10,000 residents, the amount of park spending per capita, and the number of recreation centers per 20,000 residents.

Minneapolis isn't the only Minnesota city to earn top honors. St. Paul landed in the No. 2 spot. It's the third year in a row the Twin Cities have found themselves in the top two spots of the ParkScore list.

The cities rounding out the list's top five are San Francisco, Washington D.C. and Portland, Oregon. The only Wisconsin city to land in the top 10 was Madison, which landed in the No. 9 spot.

The Trust for Public Land is a nonprofit that helps communities raise funds, protect land and plan out new parks, playgrounds and gardens.