To give a different perspective, I enjoyed the parks much more living in London than I do now, living in a sprawling suburb in the Dallas metroplex. In London I could walk to the park in 5 minutes. Here I'm lucky that it's only about a 7 minute walk, but the walk to and from is much less pleasant, having to cut through alleys and paths that were clearly an afterthought, while the park itself feels much more urban/artificial than the ones in London did.
(To be fair, London has great parks)
Density can coexist with ample green space. Remember that you don't need anything like Manhattan density to make things walkable. In my book, suburbs are only a problem to the degree that their design forces driving on residents. My vision for a perfect city has plenty of parks.
When I was talking about nature, I wasn’t thinking about city parks, but rather proper forests and mountains. City parks don’t do it for me—I need to get away from the cars and crowds. But to your point, yes, there are lots of cities with great city parks for those who are content with that sort of thing.
(To be fair, London has great parks)
Density can coexist with ample green space. Remember that you don't need anything like Manhattan density to make things walkable. In my book, suburbs are only a problem to the degree that their design forces driving on residents. My vision for a perfect city has plenty of parks.