NYC Leaves Residents Tiny Amount Of Green Space, Report Shows

NEW YORK — Turns out the lungs of the city are pretty small. New York City gives each of its residents a tiny amount of green space smaller than many other big U.S. cities, a new report shows.

The Big Apple contains just 146 square feet of green space for each person living within its bounds, according to the Tuesday report from the fleet management company Geotab. That's the least among the 15 major cities the firm examined and roughly one-seventh of the space available for each resident of Atlanta, which had the most, the report shows.

"Although Central Park is a popular spot for residents looking to step out of the hustle and bustle of NYC, it falls short in regards to providing residents with a substantial allocation of green space per person," Maria Sotra, Geotab's vice president of marketing, said in a news release.

Geotab used data from OpenStreetMap to calculate each city's total area of green space, meaning any undeveloped space that's open to the public, including parks, playgrounds, community gardens, schoolyards and even cemeteries.

The area was then divided by each city's population to determine how much green space is available to each resident, according to Geotab.

That suggests New York's huge population didn't help it in this evaluation. The city has more than twice as many people as Los Angeles, the second-most populous metropolis. But the City of Angels still has nearly three times as much green space per person at 423 square feet, according to Geotab.

The report also evaluated how much per-capita space the cities dedicate to roads and buildings — and the Big Apple came in last. The city has just 247 square feet of roads per person and 311 square feet of buildings per person, Geotab says.

While New York may not have sprawling spaces like LA's Griffith Park, those that are available are easily accessible. Some 99 percent of city residents live within a 10-minute walk of a park, well above the national average of 54 percent, according to the Trust for Public Land.