Report Finds Equity Among The Strong Points For Winston-Salem Parks

A national survey of park systems ranks Winston-Salem in the bottom quarter of top cities. But it gets high marks on a new metric — equity.

The Trust for Public Land, which creates parks and works to set aside land for outdoor use, added equity as a measure to its annual report for the first time. It's a measure of the distribution of park acreage according to income and race.

The organization's decision to include this metric was influenced by last year's nationwide calls for racial justice.

Winston-Salem did well on the equity score, finishing in the top half of the locations in the study. More parks were found to be within a 10-minute walking distance for Black residents than for white.

On other metrics, though — such as per capita spending and the overall number of residents within a short walk of a park — the city did not fare as well, bringing down the overall score to 79 out of 100 locations surveyed. Greensboro finished slightly higher at 76.

And the city with the highest-rated parks? That would be Washington, D.C.