By Eliyahu Gasson | 90.5 WESA
For the fourth year in a row, Pittsburgh’s public parks ranked in the top 20 nationally according to an annual report released by The Trust for Public Land, a national non-profit organization that advocates for the creation of parks and access to public land.
The non-profit’s ParkScore index assesses park systems in the 100 most populous cities in the United States according to a number of factors including acreage, investment and equity. Pittsburgh ranked 15th this year, marking an improvement from 2024 when Pittsburgh ranked 17th. The two biggest increases Pittsburgh saw this year were in amenities and investment, spending $176 per person on the park system in 2025.
The report shows that 94% of residents live within a 10 minute walk of a park with public access. One area of improvement was equitable access to parks. Pittsburgh scored 65 this year compared to 60 in 2024. Owen Franklin, Pennsylvania’s state director with the Trust for Public Land said that’s important progress for the city.
“There has been a notable improvement in the proportion of park space that people living in low income neighborhoods have relative to the proportion of park space that people in wealthier neighborhoods have,” he said. “Parks are a critical asset for every community and everybody, regardless of any demographic characteristic should have the same access to a high quality park within a 10 minute walk of their home.”
Pittsburgh scored low on park size with an average of 2.2 acres — below the national average of 5.4 acres. But Franklin said smaller parks are common in older cities like Pittsburgh.
“I think it’s important to have, as best as possible, a diversity of park options for residents,” he said. “I don’t think the city should over penalize itself for being developed in the time that it was and having the park space that it has.”
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The director of the department of public works Chris Hornstein said Pittsburgh is always looking for ways to improve park amenities and infrastructure.
“Whether that is us installing ball field lighting where ball field lighting doesn’t exist … opening a public restroom in a park to serve a greater amenity to the community. Whether that’s creating a safe alternative transportation via safe bicycle routes through parks,” he said. “There’s a lot of different ways that we can expand park access just through our own coordination and where we’re seeing public demand.”
The director of parks and recreation Katheryn Vargas, said the city uses the ParkScore to find areas of improvement in the park system including accessibility.
“That’s really important to us because a number of amenities they look at like rec centers, senior centers, splash pads, pools, baseball diamonds, basketball courts … all of those things are decisions that we have to make every year about how we can invest further in those amenities for city residents,” she said.
In a news release about the report, The Trust for Public Land included the results from a public opinion research report they conducted which found that residents throughout the U.S. value public parks, a finding that remained steady across demographic and ideological lines.
“I think parks are truly among the most democratic spaces that we have,” said Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy CEO Catherine Qureshi. “Come as you are, enjoy nature, which is a really atavistic human trait. We all should be able to enjoy nature.”
Qureshi said residents can help improve city parks by simply using them.
“So many Pittsburghers are using their parks. And when they start to use the parks, then they start to have opinions on what it should have or how it could be improved. And that’s what we’re really energized by because we love that community feedback,” she said.
Even though Pittsburgh scored low on park size with an average of 2.2 acres, the city officially designated Hays Woods as a city park last year. The 600-acre park consists of undeveloped forest, valleys, and streams along the city’s southeast end.
