FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WOWO): The Fort Wayne Park System is not getting high praise from a national study.
For the second straight year, the Trust for Public Land ranked Fort Wayne 98th out of the 100 biggest cities in the US, tied with Indianapolis. The only city that scored lower was Gilbert, Arizona, which didn’t even participate in the study.
The Summit City gets poor marks for median park size and the percentage of city area devoted to park land, as well as small details like the number of dog parks, basketball hoops or playgrounds.
Less than half of the city’s total population lives within a 10-minute walk of a public park.
Parks and Rec director Al Moll tells WOWO News he doesn’t take issue with their methods, but he thinks they’re overlooking a couple of factors:
“I doubt there are a lot of communities that have a $25-million riverfront park project going on right now, and I doubt there are many that have our model trail system and the Rivergreenway,” Moll says, who adds he’d put Fort Wayne’s parks up “against anyone.”
