The Trust for Public Land works to protect the places people care about and to create close-to-home parks-particularly in and near cities, where 80 percent of Americans live. Their goal is to ensure that every child has easy access to a safe place to play in nature. They also conserve working farms, ranches, and forests; lands of historical and cultural importance; rivers, streams, coasts, and watersheds; and other special places where people can experience nature close at hand.
The Trust for Public Land announced ParkServe™, a new, interactive platform that tracks urban park access nationwide. This platform will help local leaders evaluate urban park systems and identify places where new parks are needed most urgently.
During its initial launch, ParkServe™ evaluated Charlotte, NC along with 5,045 other cities that cover approximately 45% of the U.S. population. When completed in 2018, ParkServe™ will include data from 13,931 cities and towns, covering more than 80% of the U.S. population. The web-based tool will let people locate the park nearest to them, determine the percentage of residents who live within a 10-minute walk of a local park, and identify the neighborhoods most in need of new parks.