MetroABQ Blog

Greenspaces!

The MetroABQ area has them aplenty! In a survey by the nonprofit group The Trust for Public Land, ABQ ranked as the top mid-sized US city in total acres of parkland per capita. We are in the top 25 of cities for number of playgrounds, too. ABQ ranked in the top in other Green Space categories.

Although we live on the edge of one of the four deserts in the western United States, fortunately the MetroABQ area has much more than its share of Green Open Spaces. According to a survey by The Trust for Public Land, 28% of the metro area consists of public park space; that’s the most parkland of any mid-sized city in the U.S. We ranked high in the number of playgrounds compared to other cities, and we also landed in the top ten for cities with the most dog parks, with 12 dog-friendly parks scattered across the metro. ABQ’s Old Town Plaza made the list, as one of the oldest parks in the country, created in 1760. Finally, our Balloon Fiesta Park is one of the most visited parks, enjoyed by over 1,300,000 people a year.

Recently, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar christened the MetroABQ area’s newest addition to the park system, by introducing the Valle del Oro National Wildlife Refuge, which encompasses 570 acres along the Rio Grande in the South Valley. The photos below are from December 2012, when purchase of the land for VONWR was first made public.

Another popular park, Burton Park in the SE Heights is nice and wet in the morning…