<p>^ Also not sure how those cities use the term “park.” As you’re no doubt aware, some western cities tend to swallow up surrounding and suburban areas through continual annexation, leading to massive undeveloped or less developed areas within their technical city limits (Houston is especially known for this). So it could be, as you imply, that much of what they call “park” land is actually just areas within their technical city limits that they haven’t gotten around to developing yet.</p>
<p>But again, I think the claim is not that Philly has more park land than any other city in the country, but that it has one of the largest unified park systems (if you consider the Fairmount Park System as a single entity) in the country. Maybe it’s just semantics, but the Fairmount Park System–or even just Fairmount Park, itself–is still rather extraordinary, especially for an older East Coast city.</p>