DATA STORY

Park Maintenance Evaluation: About the Evaluation

Learn about the Park Maintenance Evaluation program and approach.

Park Maintenance Evaluations

About the evaluation program

The Controller's Office (CON) and the Recreation and Park Department (RPD) work together to evaluate the City’s park maintenance. CON and RPD developed objective maintenance standards to create the evaluations. Each quarter, CON and RPD staff conduct close to 240 park evaluations across the City. On an annual basis, CON analyzes the results of these evaluations. CON reports the results to the public through this website and an annual report. RPD uses the results to make strategic decisions for its park programs.

Parks have different sets of features. Features include:

Athletic Fields
Buildings and General Amenities
Children’s Play Areas
Dog Play Areas
Greenspace
Hardscape
Lawns
Ornamental Beds
Outdoor Courts
Restrooms
Table Seating Areas
Trees

For each feature, there is a set of standards that drive the evaluation. For example, athletic fields' turf should be less than 4.5 inches tall. If the evaluator finds that the turf is too tall, the field fails that standard. Standards are averaged into elements, which then are averaged into feature scores. Aggregate feature scores give the park maintenance score for each park.

We average quarterly park scores to create the annual score. We group annual scores across the city or by various categories for more analysis.

For more information on the park maintenance scoring process, review this explainer document.

Statistical Significance

We analyze the scores among park groups to see if there is any statistically significant difference. This helps us see if any numerical differences were due to chance. When there is no statistically significant difference, it indicates that RPD seems to be maintaining the same level of maintenance and cleanliness across the relevant park groups.