Mayor Keller Joins Coalition of Mayors Supporting 10-Minute Walk to a Park Campaign
Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller announced he joined the “10-minute walk” parks advocacy campaign to work toward ensuring that every Albuquerque resident lives within a 10-minute walk (or half-mile) of a high-quality park or green space. The movement is being led nationally by The Trust for Public Land, the National Recreation and Park Association, and the Urban Land Institute.
“Our parks system is one of our city’s greatest assets and we want to make sure all families can access it easily, no matter where they live,” stated Mayor Keller. “Eighty-two percent of Albuquerque residents live within a 10-minute walk to one of our parks and with this plan, we can do even better to make sure parks are distributed throughout our community. Parks help keep kids out of harm’s way and bring our neighborhoods together.”
The 10-minute walk to a park campaign is part of the Mayor’s initiative to expand opportunities for youth in Albuquerque.
“Parks are wonderful places in our neighborhoods and provide green medicine for our City,” stated Parks and Recreation Director Dave Simon. “Better access for kids across the city will increase their use of these green spaces in addition to promoting healthy lifestyles for people of all ages. Our city parks can also be a unifying place that bring neighborhoods together.”
“Everyone deserves a great park within a 10-minute walk of home, and under the leadership of Mayor Keller, Albuquerque is working quickly to achieve that goal,” said Diane Regas, President and CEO of The Trust for Public Land. “Research shows that close-to-home parks boost health and wellbeing for all, and provide a connection to nature and community that’s needed today more than ever.”
Studies show that high-quality parks provide a wide range of benefits to urban residents and cities themselves. These include physical and mental health benefits by providing opportunities to be physically active and to interact with nature; economic benefits by boosting business and helping to revitalize neighborhoods; community-building benefits by providing opportunities for neighbors to interact with each other and work together to improve their surroundings; and environmental benefits by cleaning and cooling the air, improving climate resilience, and providing opportunities for environmental education.
The 10-minute walk to a park campaign has been championed by a bipartisan group of mayors from across the country who represent large and small cities. The U.S. Conference of Mayors, which represents more than 1,000 U.S. mayors, also unanimously passed a resolution at the 85th Annual Meeting urging all mayors to actively pursue the 10-minute walk to a park goal.
For more information on Albuquerque’s ParkScore profile compiled by The Trust for Public Land, visit http://parkscore.tpl.org/ReportImages/Albuquerque_NM.pdf. For more information on the 10-minute walk campaign, visit https://www.10minutewalk.org/.