How Chicago Compares To Other US Cities For Dog Parks

CHICAGO — Dog owners know their four-legged friends need space — a lot of it. Particularly space where they can frolick off leash. Run. Bark. Wrestle. Chase. You know, dog things.

But have you ever stopped to ponder just how dog-friendly CHICAGO is for Fido? Thankfully, the good folks over at The Trust for Public Land took the time to dig in to the data to find the answer.

Chicago unfortunately didn't even make it into the top 50 ranking for dog parks, the nonprofit said — the city was ranked 51st in the country, out of a total of 101 cities.

• Chicago analysis:
  • Population: 2,781,116
  • Dog parks: 24
  • Dog parks per 100,000 residents: 0.9

Every city in the top quarter of the rankings had at least 1.8 dog parks per 100,000 residents. While impressive, no city can hold a candle to Boise, Idaho, which has 15 dog parks for its roughly 225,400 people. That’s a whopping 6.7 off-leash dog areas per 100,000 residents.

The next closest was Portland, Oregon, with 5.2 dog parks per 100,000 residents. Henderson, Nevada, ranked third in the country, while Norfolk, Virginia, and Las Vegas rounded out the top five.

Cities that ranked in the bottom 75 percent of America included Indianapolis, Philadelphia, Memphis, Oklahoma and Los Angeles. These each had less than 1.8 dog parks per 100,000 residents.

While dog owners in these cities may feel discouraged, they should take solace in the fact they don’t live in the cities listed below, which tied for dead last. Not one has a single dog park.

• Garland, Texas
• Lubbock, Texas
• Santa Ana, California
• Newark, New Jersey
• Hialeah, Florida

Each year, the organization’s Center for City Park Excellence gathers data on the nation’s largest city park systems.

“This year, we decided to take a closer look at the dog parks data because they are becoming so popular,” Charlie McCabe, the center’s director, said in a statement. “That led to these rankings of cities with the most dog parks relative to population.”

Dog parks, meaning off-leash dog areas, were among the fastest growing park amenities in the combined parks systems of the 100 largest cities, The Trust for Public Land said. The group, which aims to create parks and protect land to foster healthy and livable communities, released its findings in March.

There were 774 dedicated dog parks in the 100 largest cities last year. That’s 38 more than there were in 2016, and 40 percent more than there were in 2009, the group noted.

The survey found that New York had the most number of dog parks with 140 off-leash dog areas. New York ranked just 28th in the country though because that amounts to 1.6 dog parks per 100,000 residents.

The rankings are solely based on the number of dog parks for every 100,000 residents. Factors such as park quality and popularity weren’t contributing factors.

The most successful dog parks, the group noted, are built and maintained by people working together. Specifically, the group said strong collaboration is needed between the public parks agency, the community and local dog advocates who have a strong ownership stake in the park.

“People have many questions about ‘the right way’ to build a dog park and want to bring together the correct combination of people and resources,” McCabe said. “We’re providing this information to serve as a guide.”

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Click here to read the full report.

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