Does Your City Have Enough Parks?

[@JoshuaFagan]

As someone who went to Oslo last summer, it does not feel like a city with parks in it, but a lush forest that happens to contain some idyllic roads and buildings. Seriously, it feels like a city out of some eco futurist utopia.

[@juliusnepos6013]

Wow you are here

[@EricReno20]

Yup, Oslo is easily the most futuristic place I've ever been to

[@Crocophant572]

The reason that Oslo has so large green areas is because of city plans that stretch back more than a century. They planned for unbroken green areas going in towards the city centre as the spokes of a wheel, so everyone would have a park close to where they lived. In addition to that, the large forests north and east of the city was protected and no one was allowed to build there. Today, unfortunately development has eaten into the "spokes", but what's left of them can still be seen on a map if you know what you're looking for. The protection of the forests has been absolute, despite developers aching to build there. This also means that the city only can grow to the west and south into the neighboring municipalities, so the percentage of green areas won't be reduced much in the future. I lived for many years at the edge of the northern forest and it was great that there was a footpath straight into the forest just across the street. Two minutes and there was only the forest, the occasional moose and roe deer, no houses. I have moved away now, but I have heard that all those green areas were a huge plus during the pandemic.

[@robotinmyspace7656]

Overexaggeration. -Oslo resident

[@user-yy4ux9zf4r]

Keep in mind, its not a large city by any stretch of the imagination. They are an extremely oil rich nation thats largest city only has 600,000 people. Beautiful place though, you are right, you can hardly call it a city apart from a few areas.

[@AaronSmith-sx4ez]

There are a lot of hidden benefits of parks: - Less concrete means less runoff pollution/flooding - Neighborhoods with nice local parks don't need huge yards/offsets for their kids to play in...instead they can share a neighborhood park which is more space efficient. - The larger parks have long areas without driveways or road crossings. This can make them fantastic for biking. It's so nice when biking not have to watch out for cross traffic. - Parks unlike buildings can be flooded without serious property damage, so area ideal for waterfronts. Public shoreline also is great for kayak access, swimming, tanning and other water activities - Some northern cities do a good job of using parks to promote winter activities (skiing/skating/)

[@jasonreed7522]

And a slightly less hidden benefit is as a location to host local festivals and similar events that really build a sense of community. Ideally this park is right on Mainstreet near other amenities like the library and restaurants. (And the mandatory icecream stand so you can get an ice cream and eat it in the park) Although the exact benefits of a park depend on its exact type. A series of public tennis courts will provide less runoff reduction than a manicured grass lawn style park for instance. A bike path may be great for recreation but its also likely to be long and narrow which isn't good for hosting events but can be a fantastic backbone to cycling infrastructure in the area. (Everyone would rather bike in a park than in a gutter)

[@petervarley3078]

" Neighborhoods with nice local parks don't need huge yards/offsets for their kids to play in...instead they can share a neighborhood park which is more space efficient." Additionally, children have the opportunity to socialize with other children in the neighborhood, rather than be isolated in their own back yard.

[@noob.168]

I remember a lot of students at my former university would use the botanical gardens to smoke weed. Very recreational.

[@hayden6700]

The largest park in my city is pretty much a massive bowl containing a lake which collects at the bottom of a long river. Whenever it snows a lot, the areas around the park drain off into the park and people use it to sled. Designed incredibly well in my opinion

[@loftyjones675]

@@hayden6700 what city & park is that?

[@salihakturk5348]

I live in Istanbul and can confirm that I hate how we have nearly no parks. The city itself isn't well-planned, well, it's not planned at all, as well. Slums everywhere and I'm sure they are major problems for park guys. We have some bigger parks like the Belgrade Forest, is it a park? Idk.

[@eysanpwri2740]

I dunno I think Belgrade is too far from the centre to be considered a park... Izmir seems to have plenty of parks in comparison to Istanbul, and Ankara too. What's the difference between these two cities and Istanbul??

[@salihakturk5348]

@@eysanpwri2740 Ankara'da climate doesn't allow many parks but the city is far less crowded and 'relatively' well planned. It being the capital city and Ataturk personally supervising some of the early projects also helped the city. Izmir even more European than Istanbul and it has more young people. But the city itself is as bad as Istanbul when it comes to planning. The peninsulas and basically shorelines of the city is better built with most of the parks being there. The main thing all three suffer from is that back then the cities weren't planned. The design of Constantinople is still visible on maps but again, slums. Ankara mainly suffers from harsh climate but it's the better of three. Izmir has better places than most, nearly all, Turkish cities but the city center where it truly matters, it lacks both the parks and the planning

[@ishaqmo7200]

Yeah Istanbul is frustrating not green

[@randombystander5324]

Feel you. Was in Istanbul for a few days last year and went on to explore the city by foot. Have never been to so many cafés just to rest my legs for a few minutes. Normally I would have done that on park benches. In addition, the parks I found were either too small, too far out, close to major streets or feeding grounds for feral dogs and cats. I might overemphasize the negatives a little, but you could really notice that nobody had an eye out for good parks. (I liked a lot of other things btw. not hating your city.)

[@deniz_dee]

@@eysanpwri2740 I guess you could call Belgrade Forest a regional park. There are some residential areas close by, but for the rest of the city, it's a minimum of 2 hours to get to, at least +1 more if coming from Anatolian side. Alternatively and if you have the money, you could just go to a neighboring town with a bit more time investment. I'd say the best park-parks in İstanbul are Gezi, Göztepe, Anatolian Marmara seaside and Emirgan. Which are probably all at least a bus ride for almost anyone. And the first two have had massive phases of being concrete-ified. I haven't lived in İstanbul for years, so I hope the situation is at least a little better now. Nobody needed that many stupid mini amphitheaters. I'm pretty sure the park guys have most issues with land allocation and plain ol' corruption. A friend of mine used to participate in some environmental planning projects and witnessed that local governments bought new benches without ever bothering to (re)place the old ones with their already rotting stock in the basement.

[@alexdaland]

A big reason Oslo has so much open space is that Oslo city is quite big compared to how many people live there. So there is plenty of space. Also the political system makes the idea of removing a park extremely difficult to actually get done.

[@danielmcallahan]

So is Vienna. Just look at Kahlenberg and Lainzer Tiergarten

[@Codraroll]

There's also The Forest that surrounds the city. Protected forest areas comprise more than half of Oslo municipality, which is why it gets such a sky-high park rate. The geometric middle of the city boundaries is deep in the woods.

[@GormHornbori]

Well, it was no problem for the US embassy in Oslo to build their compound in a park...

[@Homer-OJ-Simpson]

Oslo city is 700k and Oslo greater metro is 1m. That's a rather small city when compared to those on the list. Seville has the same population as Oslo (in greater urban) but with only 1/4 of the area. Oslo is indeed very low population density.

[@peterp4037]

Your comment should be at the top. But you know people idealize nordic countries.

[@pattobyo]

Tokyo actually seems to have a lot more green than you would expect. Community gardens or random farming plots pop up all over the place, in addition to parks of various shapes and sizes. And although technically not parks, Temples and Shrines can serve as somewhat "natural spaces"

[@zakwanarif]

Tokyo Japan is interesting. While the city itself has low percent of garden, the entire country has one of highest forest or green coverage percentage in the developed world, placing it right behind Finland and Sweden. Japan is heavily mountainous area and being the 11th most populous country in the world, they sort of trade less green in the city with so much greenery everywhere else.

[@pattobyo]

@@zakwanarif totally agree!

[@MrTheWaterbear]

No, it really does not. Public “gardens” are very unpublic. Can’t be used for playing or for leisure. Pretty poor city planning.

[@melody5296]

@@MrTheWaterbear That same problem happens to Taipei, the city I live in; all the "public space" is not even public at all.

[@longiusaescius2537]

Huh

[@rowaystarco]

Oslo does have quite a few green spaces within the city, but Oslomarka (the outskirt forests) make up the biggest parts of the city. Building in "marka" is banned. The cool thing is several subway lines take you directly to these great areas.

[@grahamrothphotography]

Edmonton Alberta has a massive 18,000 acre river valley, north americas largest urban park, it’s amazing, feels like you’re out of the city when in it.

[@ChasmChaos]

Can you get to it from the city without a car?

[@hussam1981]

@@ChasmChaos its right in the middle of the city so its fairly accessible. Pretty much every bus connecting the south side of the city to downtown stops along it, a bus goes there every 10 mins from my house.

[@grahamrothphotography]

@@ChasmChaos downtown and the university is a short walk from it also some light rail stops too near it

[@ChasmChaos]

@@grahamrothphotography awesome!

[@ChasmChaos]

@@hussam1981 very cool

[@heymikey1981]

I would think London, not New York, set the precedent for large parks in the cities. Hyde Park, Hampstead Heath, Greenwich park, Richmond Park, etc were already in existence before NYC existed. In addition to this, there are so many garden squares throughout the city.

[@ashyclaret]

I think London set the standard for parks.

[@vijay-c]

I'm British, we still have a historic common"l in my city too with ancient rights (traced back to at least the 13th Century, but possibly to 500AD) to graze livestock. It's obviously used for all sorts of recreation these days from informal sports to music festivals and it's amazing. We also have a seperate sports centre away from the common for more organised sports with courts, fields etc. And lots of more modern parks in the city centre & around the city - having so much greenspace (one of the highest percentages in England), often in walkable distance, makes the city really distinct.

[@xander1052]

Same here, though that common is in the outskirts of London.

[@2untrue]

Newcastle?

[@Pipppo]

Can't relate at all to this and I live in the UK too. You must live in a town or small city.

[@LawrenceSteps]

I live in SE London, Zone 3, and I have 5 sizeable parks within a 15m walk - it's one of the best things about the city and can't be found in many others in the country.

[@swausgebouwen143]

@@2untrue definitely Newcastle

[@humanecities]

We compared my sister’s town of 10k to the neighbourhood of 17k we grew up in. Her town has 3 playgrounds. The neighbourhood we grew up in had 22. We also had many more parks and access to provincial parks. These public, recreational, gathering areas are a must in any city.

[@Swampzoid]

My hometown Savannah is a city famous for it's many small parks (we call them squares) but they are mostly for strolling through. We do have a few large recreational parks in the city.

[@thisisnotausernameXD]

Savannah is lovely ❤️

[@ALIHQG]

I actually noticed this clearly last time I went to Istanbul, after going everyday to the mall or street markets, or indoor activities, I wanted to have some fresh air in a park, just walking around or riding a bike, but I literally couldn't, there wasn't any, so I went to a tiny park nearby and called it a day.

[@furkan_1s]

Nerede bulamadın parkı ?

[@jaxvoice718]

The city of Oslo is itself pretty green, but most of the "park" of Oslo is a large protected forest around the city, How large? So large that the geographical centre of Oslo is inside that forest. And so large that a scout troop once took a trip into it, and got lost for two days. Now, that's a proper park.

[@D2theJ26]

You being a Wisconsin native I was hoping you were gonna mention Milwaukee's park system. Eighty-nine percent of Milwaukee residents live within a 10-minute walk to a park (well above the national average of 70%) and its park system is often ranked in the top 20 park systems in the country.

[@FrostyButter]

Parks aren't just for recreation. Green space cools surrounding neighborhoods, helps with stormwater management, and provides wildlife habitat.

[@SurprisedPikacheesecake]

Very true and all of these were mentioned in the video :)

[@onaraisedbeach]

Edinburgh (Scotland) resident here, formerly a denizen of the suburban wastelands of the Greater Toronto Area. Edinburgh has about 49% of its space dedicated to parks: family play areas, meadows, forested paths, undeveloped hills, etc, many of which are easily accessible from rich and poor neighbourhoods alike. As someone who escaped suburbia, I can't emphasise enough how completely this transforms quality of life. Everything from fresh air and meeting other locals to exercise and just places to slow down and be mindful. Plus, Scotland has the 'right to roam', basically meaning so long as you leave no trace and don't cause damage, you can go (more or less) wherever you like - even off paths! It's incredible, but had to be fought hard for - now that it's a thing, I can't imagine living anywhere that doesn't have a) significant green spaces, and b) universal access rights. Going to visit family back in Canada now feels like being put in car prison. If you feature Edinburgh in this series, I'm a long-time local and historian who would love to show you why this city is amazing!

[@douglasgraham9549]

As someone who grew up in Edinburgh, I never fully appreciated the parks and meadows here until I found this photo album full of memories here of me climbing up Arthur’s seat, playing frisbee in leith links, outdoors fringe shows in the meadows, getting ice cream at Cramond beach, Christmas at the botanics… I didn’t realise how important the city’s green space has been for me.

[@matthewmosley960]

you should try Glasgow, I lived in Edinburgh for 5 years then moved over to the west. The thing that struck me was the quality of parks in Glasgow, especially the southside. Never expected it, would never go back. Queens park, Pollock and Linn especially

[@alifloydtv]

@@matthewmosley960 Ah, as an Edinbugger who lived 13 years in Glasgow, 6 of them Southside (d'ya know the big Chris T Died For Our Sins sign on VIcky Road? Outside my old flat) I always loved Queen's Park very dearly. What I adore about Edinburgh is the old railway lines now as paths - I can run for literally miles in the city and not see traffic, as they connect up lots of parks. Both such great cities - I could never choose a favourite.

[@matthewmosley960]

@@alifloydtv agreed about the old train lines, they make the North a joy to ride on a bike. Have mates that live down in Granton and love taking the paths to their flat

[@sebastianjoseph2828]

I'm so glad you highlighted DC because I love the parks there. I'll take the train in from central Maryland sometimes just to bike through Rock Creek Park. A lot of parks like Rock Creek, Archibald Glover, Fort Circle, and Kenilworth are great because they're just preserved forest with trails through. But there are also the Aquatic Gardens, Arboretum, and Canalpath for sightseeing whilst in nature. And there are many local city parks. And of course, the Mall is great for sports and picnics.

[@utkuylmaz6593]

The problem with İstanbul is the fact that it is a 2000 year old city that was basically never properly planned. And when you have that old and big city you just cant go back and plan some parks. But yeah there definitely needs to be more effort spent to making more parks in the city.

[@ligametis]

2000 year old argument is not very useful. Till 1900s city was small enough that it didn't matter much. Everything was ruined in the last century.

[@jurjenvanderlaan8690]

For many centuries Istanbul was a group of small villages around the Bosphorus surrounded by forests. So the problem is not its age, but a lack of planning in the last century that could have prevented the disappearance of the forests.

[@FilmingFish]

A bit late, but 95+% of Istanbul today was built in modern times. Very little infrastructure survives from the Byzantine era. Also many other European cities are as old yet do not have the same problem. It’s entirely due to planning starting in the 20th century.

[@EnjoyFirefighting]

some aspects to take into account: some cities might cover a great area which reaches out far beyond the built up areas. Cities like Oslo or Bergen in Norway are perfect examples, as the municipalities reach so much further out of what you see from the city and where you'd draw a line of the city limits; Of course all that area will be rated positively in those statistics, even if people don't live in those areas where you have those forests. the other way around some cities might have lots of green around them, but it wouldn't count as it's outside the city limits - but it's there and people go there for recreation; Munich in Germany would be a good example

[@soundscape26]

That was my first thought as well... how city limits are defined heavily influence those percentages.

[@ivanehreshi9568]

Remeber when I was visiting Istanbul for the first time, I opened Google Maps to find some park to get some rest from the crowd. To my surprise there were very little of them. I thought to myself there can't be no parks. Then it turned out that even the small green areas are not proper parks. Istanbul is an authentic city , but it really lacka those green spaces

[@CaravelClerihew]

I wonder how a city is defined in the percentages from 0:45. I got curious and looked up Melbourne's greenspace percentage before looking at the video, which apparently is about 19%, but the chart says it's closer to 9%? That's a big difference.

[@thedemongodvlogs7671]

I was shocked at how low it was. Anyone who has lived in Melbourne can attest that there are so many parks/greenspaces. Perhaps they only counted the CBD??

[@peepeetrain8755]

Melbourne's city limits can change. Some stats include suburbs like Frankston and Dandenong or even the mornington peninsular while some data regards certain suburbs as separate.

[@LouAllenWheeler]

People don't realize how much parks matter to good urbanism. Also, thanks for mentioning disc golf, we love our disc golf courses in city parks!

[@anubizz3]

Urbanist only care for its protected bike lane. Of course this includes protected bike lane inside the park...

[@Felix-nz7lq]

Oslo’s approach is more to do away with parks and just let the forest seap into the city. If you’ve ever seen it from above in Summer it looks more like a forest with buildings dotted about than a city with trees. It also just has huge stretches of wilderness you can just take the metro or tram to.

[@Quietloud]

I'm surprised Montréal is so low on the list, with Mount Royal, Lafontaine, Laurier and Maisonneuve parks being sizeable, along with all the tiny, charming "parkettes" we have.

[@shaunmckenzie5509]

The same with Melbourne They're not comparing like for like.

[@Limemill]

Also Jarry, Cap-St-Jacques, les Iles-de-la-Visitation... They're all huge

[@abdullahrizwan592]

I also expected Toronto to be higher on the list.

[@Canleaf08]

Jardin Boutanique near the Parc Olympique in HoMa.

[@Limemill]

@@Canleaf08 For Christ's sake, every time someone says "HoMa", it makes me think of SoDoSoPa from South Park. :) Given that it still has plenty of little corners packed with hookers, crackheads and whatnot, the similarity between the two is uncanny

[@trainsandmore2319]

When I was in Osaka Castle Park, its large size meant that I didn’t feel like I was in Osaka anymore, unless you look at the surrounding skyline. I’ve entered a haven of parkland, of historical ruins and buildings.

[@MorganHJackson]

The discussion about city definitions is interesting, especially as you mentioned Sydney and Melbourne. You can see on the map that those places both have pretty similar park coverage, and big inner city parks. Sydney is surrounded by national parks, but Melbourne isn't.

[@hogfather22]

It seems that anything that could have been a public park in Melbourne has been turned into a golf course instead, with a few other sports fields thrown in there for variety.

[@stephaniec8575]

I was confused when he compres Los Angeles and San Francisco, yes there’s Los Angeles City and Los Angeles County which LA is in, but SF is also a city and county. So when he said they only count the city limits, well they are also counting the county limits. It’s a city and county!

[@shaunmckenzie5509]

Yes. It's the way they're counting it and the different definitions of what counts as part of the metro area. Melbourne has MORE parks than Sydney in the areas where people actually live. I've lived in both. No way in hell does Sydney have 4x as much.

[@Takodate]

@@shaunmckenzie5509 Victoria called itself the Garden State!

[@juanpablocorreiaecheverria2857]

Yes. Brasília is basically a giant park with small residential buildings sprawled around it.

[@ChasmChaos]

Are you referring to the superquadra? How green are the suburbs around Brasilia where almost everyone actually live?

[@arwon2227]

Canberra is essentially the same, unsurprisingly

[@atrevolutionwiththomaspain68]

I live in Taguatinga, and there's a fair bit of green, but nothing like Plano Piloto

[@RicoBanani]

my hometown Osijek Croatia is known as the greenest city in Croatia and has been known as the greenest city in Yugoslavia as well. The city developers decades ago decided to develop parks and currently we have 17 with a total area of 394 000m2 in a city with less than 100 000 people. In addition its known as a cyclists city and has been so even before all the bike lanes were built in the last 25 years

[@MellonVegan]

I live in Münster (would be the safest city in Germany if bicycle theft didn't exist and is considered, sometimes, the most liveable city in Germany) and unless the numbers I found were wrong, we have 75% of our land area be forests, parks, playgrounds, the lake and other such recreational areas. Another site had it listed at no. 12 in Germany with 81% green areas. Ngl, I absolutely love it here and wouldn't leave again for anything in the world.

[@tickrob991]

Münster is beautiful and is almost as big (area) as Munich and has 300,000 inhabitants while Munich has 1,600,000. But even though Munich is known for its huge parks and green areas like the English Garden, the Olympiapark, the Maximiliansanlagen, the Hofgarten, Westpark, Ostpark, etc. And we also have good cycle paths all around the city (with a rising trend) but still not as good as Münster. As far as I know Munich is also one of the most liveable and safe cities in Germany and Europe. And the population is very good distributed throughout the whole city area (with lots of green spaces between) which is a bit different than Vienna that has more or less the same city area of Cologne but is very central. So the outskirts of Vienna are mostly green while the central area is insane densely inhabited, that's also why Munich feels a lot more like a smaller city like Ulm or Hannover while Vienna is more like Barcelona. At the same time you see that Munich is the most densely city in Germany and also more than Vienna. But the thing is also that the city is situated in Upper Bavaria close to the Alps and to beautiful lakes and its surroundings are very green (unlike in Cologne or Düsseldorf for instance).

[@driss3946]

I live in Bogotá and you said it yourself. The amount of green space depends a lot on the city's delimitation. While I do think that the city still needs a lot more of green spaces (specially in poor neighborhoods, southwest and northwest of the city), we literally developed the city around a mountain chain, so you're always looking at these vibrant green mountains, and they're pretty near from you if you ever want to hike. We also have a incredibly big park in the geographical center of the city paired with the campus of the state university. When you're there it feels like if you were in the far suburbs almost in the countryside, while being literally in the center of the city.

[@amvin234]

As an Angeleno, LA definitely needs to improve on park density. LA has some great large parks, (e.g. Griffiths Park as well as various county and state parks in local mountains), but they aren't as accessible or tend to be on the fringes of the city. They serve their purpose, and Griffiths is still a great urban park with lots of amenities and is near to a lot of urban sites, but it's a bit mountainous which makes public transit access difficult. Meanwhile LA is generally not great at serving residents with your small-to-medium sized neighborhood park down the street.

[@fatviscount6562]

Too bad most Angelenos just *think* the public transit is impossible without checking. Griffiths Park has bus services that are free or extremely cheap, but on weekends people rather wait 2 hours in hot cars for parking next to the observatory. One can even ride buses to trail heads that lead to the top of the Hollywood Sign. Griffiths should just ban weekend parking, and run frequent shuttles from multiple subway stops. Culver City has a state park served by several bus lines, but again, Angelenos don't think of buses as transit. LA County does an abysmal job of selling transit to residents who rarely use it.

[@amvin234]

@FAT Viscount投成人 I didn't say no transit exists to Griffiths, I said it was difficult, and it is. I'm very aware of what public transit exists in LA and have used busses regularly for commuting within the city.

[@carbrained]

@@amvin234 what's so difficult about a 15-minute bus ride from the subway station? Seriously, most locals don't realize how accessible that park already is. But I agree, generally transit in LA is poorly designed and maintained, even the new stuff

[@averyshaw2142]

Pretty simple solution, transform exclusive golf courses for the wealthy into public spaces

[@luord2940]

I live in Lima. The city is placed in a desert, wich means parks are a luxury that only people with money can have sadly. Slums in Lima are often placed in sand hills with no trees in kilometers cuz of that reason. The city has around 1/3 of the population and 1/2 of the gdp.

[@ngeteengetee7589]

i live in regina saskatchewan, and i have access to a major bike path that has a decent amount of park space along it, two elementary school playgrounds, and a handful of lil playgrounds, all within about a 10 min walk, add on another like two or three school playgrounds, within a 15 min walk, we also have a large main city park that is connected to the bike path that goes by my house that has a large park that goes around a man made lake in the middle of the city, quite literally a few km from downtown where your able to kayak and whatnot too! i love the parks lol

[@tdb7992]

I think your stats for Melbourne having tiny amount of parks is off. You're only looking at the very dense core, rather than the metropolitan area. Melbourne is full of beautiful parks.

[@johnnguyen6159]

My city has too much vacant land and too many parks. It seems like every time we have a proposal for the waterfront it comes in a form a park which is good but would like to see either some more density to increase walkability, aquarium, retail, or other open to the public development. Plus it is something that can be used during the winters when it can be too cold to be outside.

[@hasan6ok]

never in a million I would've thought of gezi protests to be covered in this channel :') great video

[@christophehorguelin7044]

Parks are important, but so is canopy. Montreal is near the bottom of your list (12%) but in central neighbourhoods life is quite pleasant due to the abundance of mature trees.

[@robin_gamr6479]

Love the video! Whenever I go on vacation in a big city I always spend half my time in parks, Vienna was beautiful! However I also believe it’s important to consider how the park looks, when I was in Berlin, some “parks” were monoculture grass fields, which leaves a lot to be desired in terms of the positives of having parks in a city

[@xnoideawhatimdoinx]

Since i'm from Vienna, i would say yes, plenty of parks here.

[@LarryNgetich]

I live in Nairobi, Kenya, and we have too much park. Some of it you can't walk in because of lions and buffalos (I live in Ongata Rongai, right next to the Nairobi National Park) and nighttime is when they come out to play at our doorsteps. We do have a bunch of nice ones, like Uhuru Park, Michuki Park, and some trails in Karura Forest and Oloolua Forest.

[@Omer1996E.C]

We have low population density in Africa, that's one of the reasons we have a lot of parks. We don't need a lot of parks, but quality ones.

[@napoleonibonaparte7198]

The easiest method for some cities now would be to put up trees in the streets.

[@juliankennedy4304]

One interesting thing is the amount of destruction of trees and green spaces that take place in cities when zoning allows the addition of Mother in law buildings or conversions on SFH into multi family units.

[@Cyrus992]

Parks can be good buffer/transition zone away from industry, freeway interchanges, and other less attractive areas. The issue is that they cannot be as common in dry areas like here in Las Vegas. The harsh truth is that many parks here are actually common HOA area since city and counties (we hardly have compact cities) do not want to pay for them.

[@jeremycurle6880]

parks can be best as plentiful in cities as dry as las vegas as in wetter places, the key is making them work with the environment. where a place like seattle might have a grassy park with lots of trees, a place like vegas can have a desert park with junipers or other desert plants.

[@skysthelimitvideos]

Planet desert plants instead of grass. Less maintenance and better as habitat

[@Cyrus992]

@@skysthelimitvideos I agree but will the masses want that?

[@jeremycurle6880]

@@Cyrus992 a park full of desert plants is better than no park at all, i think anyone would agree

[@MustraOrdo]

@@Cyrus992 The masses will comply with the right execution of education and awareness.

[@AnymMusic]

I'm surprised Amsterdam has 13% parks. Although with the amount of trees everywhere, I do think that makes the number less rough

[@ligametis]

Amsterdam is just streets and buildings. Wouldn't surprise if most of those parks are in 1970s areas in suburbs.

[@ten_tego_teges]

That table is misleading. I live in Warsaw and very recently visited Vienna. I assure you that Warsaw is far greener than Vienna, there are plenty of trees along streets and you usually live at most 400m away from a sizeable square or park. If you don't believe check out satellite photos and street view from Google maps. Compare where you have more trees.

[@AnymMusic]

@@ligametis well yeah it's obviously not a super ultra green paradise, but I mean more like I feel like in cities like Amsterdam dedicated parks are less needed overall because there's more greenery throughout the entire city compared to a city like New York where it's 99% concrete outside of Central Park

[@jurjenvanderlaan8690]

I think how a city feels also depends on street width and building heighth

[@ThorRuneHansen]

That number for Oslo includes the forests alrund the city that are within the municipality of Oslo. That's probably not fair. I found a post from Oslo municipality that puts park at 27% of built up area, and 47% of built up area is covered by trees. Still good numbers but very different from 68%

[@RealMattHaney]

Interesting to zoom in on Rock Creek Park in DC, which is a regional park, and then discuss the limited utility of regional parks. In general most of the park space in DC is more in the mold of regional parks, including the National Mall. For example, in the major city center on the zoom in, there is a relative dearth of parks of reasonable size, and the ones there can become very crowded. So it may be the most equitable system in the US, but for example Savannah, GA has a better design IMO when it comes to parks, because they are a key part of the city design and evenly spaced throughout.

[@bunnycollins9509]

Central Park is nice, but Forest Park is where it's at. Biggest park inside of a city in the U.S., and lots of free stuff to do, like one of the best zoos in the U.S.! It's amazing we have this in St. Louis~

[@k.umquat8604]

City planning is almost non existent here in Turkey. Most roads are patchy and many buildings are either empty or unfinished.

[@killernat1234]

I’m some British parks we have plenty of parks but a lot of them go underfunded, fountains become unused with pants growing in them, trees don’t get the care they need and get cut down, cleaning is to be desired etc

[@DominikPlaylists]

I live in Singapore. The 50% marked as parks Is a joke. This 50% is mostly government and military land which is not legally accessible to the public. Then if you take away all the "parks" which are just nature preserves without any trails or easy access, we are left with at most 5-10%. The 68% from Oslo is also a vast overestimate. There are nice parks but they like to count a house with a tree in front a part of a park. Check google maps.

[@mjsvitek]

The only thing I like about my town here in Canada is the abundance of parks: we have a LOT of them, and the municipality is still creating more. One of the very few things they're doing good.

[@P.Aether]

Oslo 1% away from greatness 😢

[@thegrantkennedy]

I live in Tokyo and there are a ton of small neighborhood parks where kids play and the elderly socialize. There aren't a lot in the downtown business areas but you still get Yoyogi, Shinjukugyoen, Ueno, and many others that are frequented daily. Many shinto shrines also provide quiet areas for respite from the city. Tokyo becomes even more green as you move outside of the 23 wards into the bed towns and surrounding suburbs. Chofu, Machida, Tama, and more all have lots of parks and green space. Trying to compare green space between Tokyo and Oslo is pretty amusing tho. That's comparing apples to oranges. Yeah they are capitol cities but the Tokyo Metropolitan area has more people than Norway, Finland, Sweden, and Denmark combined.

[@Mr.Ramirez95]

Imagine if they replaced the parking per building law for parks per building law.

[@tyffen123]

As a Norwegian, I always find it weird when people praise Oslo. We aren't such huge fans of it Guess you guys haven't heard of Trondheim

[@Jay-ho9io]

As a Norwegian it's hard for you to praise s lot of things about your country everyone else loves. (I'll take Tromsø,pls)

[@streamin16]

9:20 “valuable habitat for critical species” 😂

[@tomj.l7988]

Melbourne and Sydney actually have similar amounts of park, it's just Melbourne's are immediately outside of the city boundary.

[@uvbe]

8:50 Never have I seen a real scenario look so much like a greenscreen before

[@Zestrayswede]

Holy shit you're right. The fact that those trees are *perfectly* still really makes it look like he's standing in front of a photo

[@megalonoobiacinc4863]

noway that's real, something is really off with that background

[@jasonreed7522]

@@megalonoobiacinc4863 except if you look at his feet its super obvious that he is standing on that ground/slope and some grass is infront of him. Somehow this manages to be both more and less fake feeling than a green screen.

[@logwhitley]

In the 1960's Oxford UK had a plan to rip up their parks to build freeways into the historic centre, luckily the plan fell through.

[@ChasmChaos]

Thank goodness! I've been to Oxford and it's absolutely amazing!

[@Dani2kGaming_GEIR]

the term-,,park'' was created by iranian people and is used by many other countries,we have many of them too and its cool relaxing place

[@LoseMillion]

8:04 That park is in the UK. I know this because I lived in that area for years.

[@AlRoderick]

It's shocking to me that Tokyo, the true holotype of a megacity, has such a good amount of open space but at the same time I can hardly imagine how it could possibly be workable otherwise. Without a lot of green space and a lot of electrified trains for transportation it'd be too polluted to function with that many people in it.

[@ligametis]

Did you watch the video? Tokyo is at the bottom of the list with green, open spaces.

[@TheElectricGhost]

Living in NYC, it's so weird when I leave the city and go to a park in another state and don't see some type of basketball or handball court. It's so common here that I thought it was common everywhere

[@ChasmChaos]

Which borough? I've only been to Manhattan and I've not seen a park with a baseball pitch.

[@TheElectricGhost]

@@ChasmChaos Every borough has lots of parks with baseball fields including Manhattan. For Manhattan it's dotted throughout Lower Manhattan, several are in Central Park, and multiple can be found in several parks north of Central Park as well.

[@liamhodgson]

Not a major city but have to give a shout out to Pittsburgh for having tons of green space. A lot of it is very steep so we get great views, but sometimes so steep that it’s not really usable without being very careful

[@Sp4mMe]

A park (over just a local playground or square or something) to me must be designed in a way that basically makes me forget I'm in the city. Can be groomed lawn and everything, but it still needs to evoke to some extend the feeling of having gotten "out".

[@felixanderson3226]

Istanbul has recently shared a vision for 2050 and it talks greatly on how they will aim to overcome this very issue! You should look into it!

[@oligultonn]

The capital city of my country has way too many parks in my opinion, that city would be Reykjavík, Iceland.

[@thetimelapseguy8]

From satellite images, most of the parks look to be cut off from the urban environment by express roads. Hardly a surprise they are of low quality.

[@BS-xs7jb]

Have to say I disagree quite strongly - when I was in Reykjavík earlier this year I was quite shocked at how American it felt with cars and parking everywhere, walking in the city center didn’t feel very pleasant at all and I did not notice many parks.

[@abeeshake96]

That Melbourne percentage of ~9% seems super low. Is it just taking the CBD area? Greater Melbourne has a tonne of green space, and is no where near as densely packed as Sydney.

[@OnilMarteNavarroza]

Philippine cities especially Metro Manila and Metro Cebu are on top of the list of cities with very few parks.

[@trainsandmore2319]

Thankfully Metro Manila has more proper parks than Cebu City. Cebu City is pretty lackluster in terms of proper parks and green space. There's only one proper park as of now, Plaza Independencia in Downtown next to Fort San Pedro (tourist zone) but it is too small. They are currently rebuilding Freedom Park (a part of the Carbon public market). You will also be disappointed by the Fuente Osmeña Circle, it is too noisy because of its small size and the fact that it also sits smack down in the middle of a busy roundabout. There's also a small park next to the provincial capitol, but it sits next to the main road and a parking lot. The D'Family Park in Talamban can only be accessed by car, a bummer. So many parks are so hard to access because we are also car-centric like Manila. Most of the green space is dedicated to empty lots, the Cebu Country Club golf course in Kasambagan, cemeteries, SRP, etc. Park culture here is basically nonexistent because everyone just flocks to the shopping malls, where the green space on the outside always feels fake.

[@williamhuang8309]

If you replaced every parking lot in the US with a park then the US would probably have the most parks anywhere in the world lol

[@chrisseidl8294]

In Chicago- open space is different than parks. There is a good amount of forest preserve that is considered open space, but not considered part of the parks.

[@ramochai]

Wouldn't Lincoln Park be the crown jewel of parks if it hadn't been ruined by Lake Shore Drive??

[@shindousan]

0:38 Walking around, Tokyo seems to be much greener than Rome, and Buenos Aires much greener than New York City. There is something odd about this metric. It probably does not take into account the average distance to a park or a garden, so having a distant large park or reserve on the outskirts of the city bumps up the value.

[@Jarekthegamingdragon]

Interesting, despite having a ton of more typical parks near by, when I hear the word park I tend to think of something like forest park here in Portland. I have never seen a pickle ball court in a park. I also live inner city and never have lived in a suburb so that checks out.

[@SincerelyFromStephen]

Pittsburgh has some pretty decent parks. Frick and Schenley Parks are in the middle of the city but make you feel like you’re out in the woods when you’re on the trails. Allegheny Cemetery doubles as a really nice large park with shaded paths to walk through on hot summer days.

[@drivers99]

5:18 Confluence Park, Denver!

[@memofromessex]

Manchester desperately needs parks - as someone who has lived much of my time in London and lived elsewhere, I am absolutely disgusted with the lack of parks in central Manchester. Its one of the reasons I would not live there. Along with the sad Mancunian obsession with being like London. Don't be like London, London is a great city by many marks but it's awful to live in and people are rude.

[@enthusiastisch1922]

YES! Manchester has nothing except that new Mayfield park, every park is outside.

[@trismica]

ye i guese glasgoiw is ok were removing parking spaces no which is good

[@luluandmeow]

In London you're never too far from a park so I was surprised it didn't rate higher on your list. I am lucky to have 2 fairly large parks on my doorstep, one is a shortcut to the underground station and the shops so I use it every day and no longer take the bus into the centre of my area. Unfortunately more and more frequently Councils (i.e. London local government) hire out parks as music/event/fairground sites which then close the park to residents for one or more days. This results in a lot of noise from usually rubbish music, upsets the wildlife and leaves a trail of rubbish and destruction (damaged grass, etc.). But I grew up in Italy in large towns without a single park, where we had to go to the cemetery to see some greenery and it wasn't always near or safe, so London is fantastic by comparison. I live in NE London and there is also Epping Forest within a mile of where I live, wetlands, marshes, etc. We are very lucky.

[@KayJblue]

As a Marylander, I love D.C

[@DonsaiRoadsOfficial]

I've visited central park and found it unimpressive....unkept and dirty. Although I'm comparing it to Canadian park standards which are quite high even globally. But being that NY is a renewed city, I just expected more.

[@nordriket]

I live in Oslo and the city doesnt have that many parks. But they count the surrounding forest as a part of Oslo. The forest is wild taiga and doesnt look like parks at all.

[@daveharrison84]

Newark has crumbling abandoned houses being sold to developers. Sometimes even 3 or more houses next to each other. The houses should get demolished and the land should get turned into parks.

[@ianhomerpura8937]

If they're around or near railway stations, turn them into mixed use transit oriented developments, like what Japan does all the time, or like Brightline in FL.

[@imakevideos5377]

One slight correction, Pyongyang is in the top few for percentage of parks

[@mutiny4155]

I'm reading The Death And Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs and I'm on the chapter where she talks about why some city parks go underutilized and become areas for vice and crime. It's very interesting stuff

[@tyroberts2261]

I worry about not enough green grass and trees. You come from Portland. Do you include the giant forest park.

[@davidandresicu96]

Knowing other cities, I think that there is a Trap in the Bogota's data, we have 5.134 parks in the city, I don't know if it is because Simon Bolivar Park ( the biggest) and others like El tunal Park are closed every nights for security reasons, but it is more than 10% of the urban area.

[@ed838wefnrkj]

I'm from Istanbul and unfortunately my people haven't understood that there are some things more important than money. The land value here is so much higher than the rest of the country that no municipality wanted to give up on the sweet cash. Muslim Turks also don't have the understanding of what a city is, as prior to republic cities were mostly (emphasis on the mostly) Christian while muslims lived on the countryside. So when villagers started flocking into cities in the 60ies and became majorities against the urban dwellers in really short time, they voted for other conservative muslims who would gladly let anyone build anything anywere (i.e "gecekondu"). By the 90ies, turkish cities have finally became the hells they are today. In only 3 decades we managed to ruin our cities forever.

[@luluandmeow]

In London it's wonderful to go to some parks (e.g. Waterlow Park in Highgate) and read the plaque that says that this land was donated by some philanthropist for the benefit of the community; The very wealthy people in the world should do this, leave a wonderful legacy that everyone can enjoy instead of spending millions on trip into space, etc.

[@freeman10000]

I am fortunate to live in Perth, Western Australia. Our city is full of different types of parks and green spaces. Perth is also home to one of the world's largest inner city parks, Kings park.

[@vedhanthrathod6576]

Bro I want to live in Perth

[@anubizz3]

​@@vedhanthrathod6576 Well wait until you go there bhahhahaha

[@debuthunter5389]

Perth is very good for parks. Growing up there I was used to having so many local parks in every suburb, plus public access footy fields, soccer fields etc. The places I have lived after have fallen a little short in that department.

[@Henrik46]

The Oslo figure is highly misleading. Yes, parks and forests make up 68 % of the _municipality_. But the vast majority of this is simply green areas to the north and east of the actual built up areas. You would need to travel about 30 minutes by public transit from downtown to get to a popular lake area in the north.

[@jaqafle]

This can't be true I lived in Oslo for more then 13 years and few years near İstanbul. 68% and 2% no way. Must be calculated wrong. Oslo has allot of parks but İstanbul also has quite few parks. So would like to see how is calculated. I think was is play here is that Oslo have allot green area outside the city. İstanbul have also allot of green area outside city one can call parks as well.

[@llwo4337]

I think China has done a good job in urban greening with high population density. Chinese cities not only set up a large number of urban parks, but also use their special urban layout to reserve a certain area of green space in each community, which ensures that people can enjoy a better life. Get in touch with nature. Of course, greening is also related to the climate. In the south of China, the vegetation is easy to survive in the humid and warm climate, so the greening is better. In the north, more people choose to build parks by rivers or lakes to reduce the cost of plant maintenance.Compared with Oslo, a city with a vast land and sparse population and superior natural conditions, China is more worth learning

[@arthurmezacasa1021]

I live in Porto Alegre, a 1.4 million inhabitants city in southern Brazil. It was once the state capital in Brazil with me most green space per inhabitant, but has since lost that title. I dare to say we used to have one of the best - if not THE best - park system among brazilian cities. There aren't many public spaces called parks, but there are many small public squares full of greenery distributed along the older neighborhoods, offering spaces for exercising, having an ice-cream or just sitting and watching the birds. There are also many streets and avenues lined with trees, like true green tunnels. Rua Gonçalo de Carvalho was once considered to be "the most beautiful street in the world" by a portuguese biologist. However, as with most brazilian cities, the plans weren't able to cope with the rapid growth of the population, and areas developed more recently (especially slums, which are developed with no planning at all) ended up having almost no green spaces. And the situation gets worse because some newer developments being made in the city waterfront and parks are not very "democratic": some portions of their greenery are being taken down to house fancy outdoor food courts or concert venues which offer expensive services for a mainly white population that has the means to afford them.

[@Limemill]

I'd say that Curitiba is at least as good when it comes to parks, no?

[@hhbased]

I feel like Hamburg, as the biggest non capital city of europe, has by far the most and biggest parks. Its safe to say that Hamburg has the biggest cemetery park of the world ("ohlsdorfer friedhof")

[@erejnion]

Sofia technically has 62% park area, but that includes the entire Vitosha mountain. That's not undeserved, as the existence of Vitosha mountain is indeed a big boon to everybody in the city. But it still means that a lot of the newly developed neighbourhoods don't really have a park anywhere near them despite the outstandingly sounding percentage - due to the restitution laws after communism that returned the space allotted for future parks to the owners from before 1944. This uneven distribution of parks is one of the main problems in the city right now.

[@lgls]

It is an offense to talk about parks and not mention Mexico City which has the first public park in the American continent founded in 1592 La Alameda Central and with more than 100 parks each one different

[@TrickiVicBB71]

I wonder how much green space percentage Edmonton has now. We ha e the river valley and every suburb has a pond and walk paths. They are trying to turn an underused parking lot on 106/105st &102ave into a park (warehouse park) But people are pissed and say it will be a homeless camp, that it is a waste of taxpayer money and should be used to fix potholes and build more homeless centers.

[@al_caponeh6185]

I'm from Lima one of the cities with least greenspaces and public parks(and those that are present are not open... I'm looking at you parque de la exposición).Despite this, I was lucky enough to live next to a park(is less than a block away), actually three parks in my neighbourhood in eastern Lima, which is unheard of. On top of that the mountain next to me acts also as a conservation park and I visit it when I can on winter. Now contrast that with the sprawling slums and you see massive inequality problem when it comes to public spaces.

[@the__monkey]

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