How did Henderson parks fare in ‘friendly’ national competition?

Henderson’s park system was ranked within the top 20 among the largest cities in the country by the Trust for Public Land organization.

Trust for Public Land ranked Henderson 19th in its annual park score index. The index ranks the 100 most populated cities in the U.S. based on their park quality.

“We like to think of it as a friendly competition,” said Will Klein, Trust for Public Land’s associate director for parks research. “What we see is as cities improve in one category, that pushes other cities to keep up.”

Park quality is scored across five categories: access, acreage, investment, amenities and equity. Each of those categories is scored out of 100 by the organization, and the average of those scores creates a city’s total park score out of 100.

Klein said public parks help communities improve mental health, increase physical activity and encourage social interactions.

Henderson’s score for this year was 63.9. The city scored 62 points for access, 43 points for acreage, 81 points for investment, 74 points for amenities and 61 points for equity.

“Henderson is one of those cities that not only keeps up with other cities but has surpassed them,” Klein said.

Klein said a highlight for Henderson’s park system is its improvements to accessibility. He said the fact that 75 percent of residents live within a 10-minute walk of a park played a big part in the city’s high ranking, especially considering it was an improvement over the 68 percent of residents within that distance last year.

Henderson’s highest-scoring category was in investment, which Klein said is key in top-scoring cities.

Its lowest score was in the category of acreage, but Klein said the city can improve its score by continuing to improve its access to parks and equity.

Klein said Henderson’s shortcomings in equity fall in park access for communities of color, which is similar to equity issues in most other cities. He said Henderson does better than most other cities in giving park access to low-income neighborhoods.

The city is already improving in these areas, with the percentage of communities of color living within a 10-minute walk of a park increasing by 3 percent just this last year.

Henderson’s ranking this year is tied for the highest it has received since it was added to the ParkScore index in 2015. It also ranked 19th that year and in 2018.

Angela Summers, Henderson’s assistant director of parks and recreation, said the high ranking didn’t come as much of a surprise to members of the department.

“I don’t know if ‘surprised’ is the word, but I think the word that works is ‘honored,’” Summers said.

Summers said the department is motivated to keep Henderson’s high ranking for its parks and amenities. She said department leadership meets monthly to think of ways to improve parks.

Leadership of Henderson’s parks and recreation department regularly visits the city’s parks and works with park staff, according to Summers. Many of the department’s staff also use the parks in their free time.

Contact Mark Credico at mcredico@reviewjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @MarkCredicoII.