When it comes to parks and recreation in the Queen City, we have more than enough options to keep us entertained and active.
To celebrate July being National Parks and Recreation month, personal finance website WalletHub evaluated data from a number of categories in order to calculate which cities have the best recreation.
According to the website, “One of the best ways to maintain an active lifestyle is to choose a city that encourages and facilitates recreation. The best cities have a wide range of leisure activities, both indoor and outdoor. Those activities require varying levels of exercise and contribute to a city’s overall well-being and economy.”
The ranking system considered 48 metrics for 100 of the largest cities in the United States. Those 43 metrics were divided into four main categories which included entertainment and recreation facilities, with metrics like hiking trails per capita, bike rental facilities per capita, food festivals per capita and music venues per capita; costs, which included metrics like spending on parks and recreation, average fitness club fee and average food cost; quality of parks which included metrics like share of the population with walkable park access and presence on TripAdvisor’s “Top 25 Parks” list; and weather, which evaluated the city’s ideal weather.
Cincinnati came in at No. 7, just after Atlanta and right before Scottsdale, Arizona. San Diego ranked No. 1 and coming in at the bottom of the list at No. 100 was Jersey City, New Jersey.
According to Cincinnati Parks’ website, our city parks span over 5,000 acres, with parks, nature centers, overlooks and more stretching from the riverfront to the suburbs. We have a nationally ranked zoo, aquarium, plenty of outdoor and indoor recreation entertainment options and a comparatively low cost of living, which helped to rank our city in the top 10.
This article appears in Jun 26 – Jul 3, 2019.