Boise’s 10-Minute Park Walk Goal Has Reached 74% of Residents

BOISE, ID—A deceptively simple goal is quietly reshaping how Boise grows: every resident should live within a 10-minute walk of a park.

According to @nrpa, Boise Parks and Recreation established that benchmark in 2017, when roughly 60% of residents met it. Through new pathways, green space acquisitions, and targeted investments, that figure has since climbed to 74%—meaning tens of thousands of additional Boiseans now have a park within easy reach of their front door.

The metric has proven useful beyond the planning department. City leaders use it as a plain-language tool to talk about park equity with the broader community, and it gives decision-makers a concrete reason to prioritize open space preservation as new development fills in the gaps.

Twenty-six percent of the city still sits outside that 10-minute radius, which means the goal is doing exactly what good goals do: it’s not finished yet.

Watch this Instagram Reel