New York ranks number one overall in planning, with about 20 percent of its land devoted to parks, combined with a sprawl rating that is best out of the nation's top 50 cities. San Francisco, Portland, Boston, Albuquerque, Austin and New Orleans follow.

Although Atlanta ranks low in park space this time around, we look forward to seeing the city's finished "BeltLine" greenspace, trails, transit, and new development project light a fire under the city's future planning/ land use ranking.

Reference Material

Future city planning students and deep down urbanists, don’t miss:

• SGA's "Sprawl-o-meter";
• TPL's "Center for City Park Excellence"
• Planetizen, the "urban planning, design and development network"
• Next American City, a new magazine dedicated to the urban rennaissance

Cities trailing in the Planning/Land Use category may benefit from reading NAC's interview with James Kunstler and Nikos Salingaros, "Respect for the Human Scale." Every city in our survey can and will probably be doing better in this category by the time you read this page. Some cities are advantaged by historical circumstance; others have plenty of room for improvement. Let the race for more parks and walkable neighborhoods begin!

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