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hat ifyou were posh - ing a stroller or us- ng a cane? If there's a park near your office, is it close enough for a lunchtime visit? These questions may seem ob- vious, but surprisingly few ci ties ask them. Even fewer have the kind of answers that would help to develop an excellent park system Lastspring, the Trust for Public Land surveyed the 50 larg- est U.S. cities. The results were dismaying. TPL found chat only 18 of the cities had a goal for the maximum distance any resident should live from the nearest park —and among the 18, the standard ranged from as close as one - eighth of a mile to as far as a mile Distance from a park is an important measure. It may be more significant even than counting up the absolute amount of Falkland in a city. Los Angeles is a case in point. L ranks fifth among big cities with more than 30,000 acres of parkland, but more than half of that land is located in the mountainous —and relatively in- accessible— central section of the city . Mean- while, poorer neighborhoods often lack any significant parks at all Large segments of L A.'s Is 3.7 million residents are too far from a park to use it easily, conveniently, or frequently. The fact is, it's easier to count gross acreage than to figure our how far anyone is from a pad:, so the average person can't rate his or her city against a norm. What's worse, there's no stan- dard for acceptable distance. A common maxi- mum distance selected as a goal by Cleveland, Colorado Springs, Columbus, Nashville, Phoe- nix, and Portland is half a mile. But other cities — including Austin, Fresno, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, and Charlotte —allow a full mile. Yet die argument can be made that even a half a mile is coo far. I hr IIt't of Ihv hunch The Five top cities have selected standards that relate to the needs and capabilities of their citi- zens. They are: Denver (three to six blocks, 38 Biking to pinkr is encouraged by Active Living by Design (opposite) L.ef Austin i Barton Springs Pool Below the new bicycle parkingf�cility in Chicago's Millenhon Park . Too depending upon the neighborhood); Minne- apolis (six blocks); Long Beach, California (a quarter mile in high - density neighborhoods); Seattle (an eighth of mile in dense neighbor- hoods); and Chicago (a tenth of a mile to a pocket park). The others seem to have set their standards based more on their perception of political reali- ties— mostly the lack of funding and the diffi- culty in acquiring enough land Most successful of all is Minneapolis. Accord- ing to Rachel Ramadhyani, a landscape archi- tectwich the Minneapolis Park Board, idly 99.4 percent of city residents live within six blocks of a park (although Minneapolis's blocks are so long that six of them can add up to more than halfamile) The city's six -block standard, which dates back more than 50 years, can be found in the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board policies document. Susan Baird, the director of community out- reach and partnership for Denver's parks and recreation department, says of her city's parldand goal: "We just thought about being able to walls for 10 or 15 minutes." To reach that goal, Denverset its maximum distance in most neigh- borhoods at six walkable blocks, meaning that parks cannot be counted if they are on the other side of such barriers as interstate highways, rail- road tracks, or unbridged stream valleys. City parks officials solicited resident input on parka during public meetings leading up to the adoption of Denver's most recent parks master plan in 2003. In focus groups, many parents, particularly those who spoke little English, indi- cated that they were uncomfortable when chil- dren had to walk more than six blocks to a park. Thus, Denver has set an even more ambitious