A new study of “tree canopy cover” ranks Glen Park fifth out of all San Francisco neighborhoods, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. It’s a metric developed by a data company, EarthDefine, which measures the percentage of total land area covered by trees. Overall, with 669,000 trees, San Francisco has very little tree cover, at 15%. That’s because our city was founded on sand dunes and scrub and only through planting as the city grew have trees increased in number.
Glen Park has tree canopy cover of 27%. No surprise, since our little patch of paradise is home to three parks which are rich in trees: Glen Canyon Park, Dorothy Erskine Park and Fairmount Plaza. The top four neighborhoods are Golden Gate Park (54% tree cover) McLaren Park (43%), Lincoln Park (44%), and The Presidio (34%) along with their surrounding areas.
Trees have wide ranging environmental, social and aesthetic benefits and Glen Park residents are fortunate to reap the rewards. However, the other side of the coin is that trees tend to be concentrated in more affluent neighborhoods, which makes canopy cover an inequality issue which demands a reckoning. There are exceptions, with some wealthier neighborhoods having few trees and poorer neighborhoods with relatively more. Read the full Chronicle story here.
Glen Park also comes out ahead by other livability measures. Walkscore.com gives Glen Park a walk score of 84 (very walkable), a transit score of 80 (excellent transit), and a bike score of 65 (some bike infrastructure). See all the stats here.