Central Parks for Everyone

By Scott Dvorak, AICP

New York City has one of the richest histories of parks of any city in the world, with centuries of firsts and internationally known, iconic parks like Central Park and Coney Island. After several decades of underinvestment and mismanagement, the city made tremendous strides at the end of the 20th century and through Mayor Bloomberg's administration in the early 2000s to create a world-class park department worthy of the landscapes and facilities it was entrusted to steward.

That work is continuing full steam ahead. When Mayor Bill de Blasio entered office in 2013, his interest was to build upon this illustrious history and recent successes. His goal: Make sure that the resources of the department and the value of the city's parks were being shared by all New Yorkers. In May 2014 he hired Mitchell J. Silver, FAICP, the former planning director of Raleigh, North Carolina (as well as a past president of the American Planning Association), as his new NYC Parks Commissioner. As the first planner to run the parks department, Silver's charge was to think about parks differently.

With 130 million visits a year, New York's parks are both valued tourist attractions and important to making the city a livable, sustainable urban place for residents. In a city as dense as New York, parks are not just an amenity; they are outdoor living rooms.

Because of this intensity of use and their value to the daily lives of residents, they can't be handled in a piecemeal fashion. Silver's intent is to create a seamless, integrated system that addresses everything from how the parks are designed, to the process by which new projects are selected, to how they are managed and maintained in cooperation with residents and across city departments.

Janette Sadik-Khan, the former commissioner of the city's Department of Transportation in the Bloomberg administration, promoted the idea that streets are important for more than their ability to move cars — they're also valuable, multifaceted public spaces. Likewise, parks are more than a pleasantly planted lawn with trees and seating or a playground. They are a community gathering space. They provide opportunities for recreation or respite. They enhance public health by providing vegetation and mitigating heat island impacts. The can help manage stormwater during rainstorms. And yes, they also provide a place for beauty and reflection.

As density increases in existing neighborhoods (the city's population recently reached a record high of 8.6 million) and as former industrial areas are redeveloped into residential areas, parks are critical to maintaining vitality and livability in both old and new neighborhoods. New York City is investing in older parks, and setting aside land for new parks in developing areas. An important feature of the new parks is that they aren't located in leftover spaces between new development — instead, the sites are selected as optimal places for parks and then the development is planned around them.

A recent plan is driving these efforts, complemented by a number of initiatives and programs. In the fall of 2014, Mayor de Blasio's administration issued the report NYC Parks: Framework for an Equitable Future, which outlines both the mayor's vision and a department action plan to accomplish it.

The plan calls for making sure New Yorkers have access — within a 10-minute walk — to a well-designed, well-maintained park that serves their recreation and leisure needs, and provides a place to gather and build community. The plan recognizes that parks also need to address the city's efforts to become a healthier, more prosperous place, and it acknowledges parks' role in resiliency as New York deals with the impacts of climate change.

All of this is taking place with an unprecedented volume of input of New York residents and the support of political leaders. Fairness, equity, and quality drive the department's policies and investments.

New York's basketball games, such as this one in Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn, are one way to get a feel for the city. Photo by Todd Heisler/The New York Times.

Community Parks Initiative

Two years ago, NYC Parks undertook a significant effort to analyze where spending on parks had been taking place and, more importantly, which neighborhoods had seen less investment. As a result of the Community Parks Initiative analysis, the department identified 55 neighborhoods and 35 key projects across all five boroughs.

The initial $130 million capital investment was directed at projects in communities with historically low park spending, dense and growing populations, and higher levels of poverty. Significantly, CPI funding didn't come from new money; the initiative provided a framework on how to deploy existing Parks Department funds differently, leveraging investment from other city departments and joining with nonprofit partners.

The $130 million was augmented by nearly $20 million in discretionary funding controlled by local elected officials and other grants.

But it's not just about spending money on an aging parks system. The initiative addresses how to create spaces that people will care about personally and advocate for. Success means developing best practices for partnerships, programming, and maintenance, and measuring that effectiveness not by ribbon cuttings at new or refurbished parks, but by increasing the number of continually maintained, well-used, well-loved parks that enhance their neighborhoods.

This effort has been a well-thought-out experiment, calling for calibration along the way. Stakeholders' input guided the expansion of recreational opportunities, park access, and connecting each park to the surrounding neighborhood. The already active public-private group Partnership for Parks helped with this effort, assisting in public outreach during the design process and supporting the development of friends groups.

CPI spurred another interesting partnership — with The CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy. CUNY SPH joined with NYC Parks to study the health benefits of living in a community with a high-quality park. The National Cancer Institute gave them a $3 million grant for a five-year Physical Activity and Redesigned Community Spaces study. It tracks the use of parks by 2,000 residents in 40 neighborhoods and evaluates the correlation between residents' use of parks and their physical and mental health. Its data will help guide the next generation of park planning and development.

Anchor Parks and Parks Without Borders

Last August, Mayor de Blasio and Commissioner Silver announced a $150 million program to fund major improvements in five large parks, one in each borough, under the Anchor Parks initiative. More than 750,000 New Yorkers live within walking distance of these five parks, which were selected based on historical underinvestment, high surrounding population, and potential for park development. The Parks Department began community outreach in the fall of 2016 to determine specific improvements to each of the parks.

"We call these sites Anchor Parks because they provide a stabilizing, centering force for the communities they serve by offering larger and more diverse resources than smaller community parks," says Silver. "Now, New Yorkers in all boroughs have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to make their older parks new again."

By investing in the existing infrastructure of parks, the city can provide modern recreational opportunities, build upon the parks' environmental and public health aspects, and invigorate neighborhood development.

Another key parks program, Parks Without Borders, addresses the artificial jurisdictional boundaries — and in many cases, physical boundaries — around parks. Today the public might see a park surrounded by a high fence, landscaping that blocks views, or unused, neglected space adjacent to it.

The goal is to blur or erase those barriers, extending the park into the neighborhood and bringing the neighborhood in. PWB is starting at selected parks, but eventually will become a policy for capital projects at any park where it's appropriate. The initiative focuses on three physical issues:

ENTRANCES are evaluated — and moved, if needed — with an adjustment to the design that enhances flow into and around the park and the neighborhood.

EDGES of parks are addressed by removing visual barriers, right-sizing fences, rethinking vegetation, and activating spaces with lighting, seating, and street trees. The effort brings the park out to the street and draws people into the park.

PARK-ADJACENT AREAS, which often look and feel like leftover spaces, are getting special attention. Sometimes these spaces lie within the park boundary but were excluded by fencing or plantings. In other cases, they are technically managed by another entity, such as the city's Department of Transportation, but were not designed or maintained to enhance a park's accessibility. In several ways these spaces are the crux of the initiative: to remove the artificial differentiation of who is "responsible" for a particular piece of land and instead work toward using it to improve the vibrancy of both the park and the neighborhood. The park user doesn't care who is technically responsible for the space, but knows how it impacts or limits their use or enjoyment of the park.

One of the most compelling features of Parks Without Borders is the process by which projects were selected, representing one of the city's most comprehensive public outreach efforts. To engage a wide spectrum of park users and residents all over the city, the department developed a website, and staff attended community board meetings and neighborhood group meetings, held parks meetings in neighborhoods with low broadband use or availability, and left postcards and pamphlets at libraries and recreation centers. All in an effort to deeply engage as many people as possible in the process to recommend where improvements could be made and to increase their use of their local parks.

All parks were on the table and no suggestion was too large or too small. The question was fairly simple: What parks need our attention and what are the issues that need to be addressed? In the end, the department received nearly 6,200 suggestions — everything from redeveloping the entire space to fixing an entry gate — for 692 parks spread across every community board district in each of the city's five boroughs, just over a third of the more than 1,700 parks, playgrounds, and recreational facilities across the city.

Department criteria prioritized parks with the most support or suggestions, improvements that would increase park access, and physical conditions and context where the opportunities for improvement were greatest. The program selected eight showcase projects, with each getting a piece of a $40 million budget. An additional $10 million was left in the pot to expand projects at other parks and infuse them with the same design principles.

The program continues to expand — to date, 51 parks have received some aspect of attention from the initiative.

Safety — and the perception that some of the changes to parks might make them less safe — was front of mind for department staff and many residents. Staff worked with neighbors and elected of- officials to address that concern by rooting decisions in principles of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, showing restraint in applying design changes, and, most importantly, listening to the community before deciding on the design changes and moving forward with implementing them.

Schoolyards to Playgrounds

As part of Mayor de Blasio's OneNYC plan, NYC Parks and the Department of Education have partnered to expand access to public space by expanding the Schoolyards to Playgrounds program.

The initiative opens the play space to the community during non-school hours, which helps to ensure a OneNYC goal that 85 percent of New Yorkers can walk from home to a park or playground by 2030. By the time this school year started, there were already 235 such playgrounds and more than a dozen announcements of new projects.

One such playground was developed in Hell's Kitchen in partnership between the city and The Trust for Public Lands, through its NYC Playgrounds Program. Community participation is a cornerstone of that effort, and students at P.S. 111 spent three months helping plan the new playground. The final product has a turf field, running track, basketball courts, outdoor ping-pong tables, play equipment and safety mats, a forest walk, outdoor classroom, rain garden, green roof gazebo, drinking fountain, benches, and chess and checkers tables.

In addition, the one-acre playground includes green infrastructure components that will allow the space to capture up to 700,000 gallons of stormwater runoff each year.

The public-private funding mix included donations from the Charina Endowment Fund and the Sulzberger Foundation, as well as public money directed to it by the city council, the departments of Education and Environmental Protection, and the School Construction Authority.

"The Trust for Public Land has led efforts in New York City to transform underperforming, part-time schoolyards into full-time, multifunctional community playgrounds," says Adrian Benepe, senior vice president and director of City Park Development.

Resiliency

You can't discuss resiliency planning in New York City today without talking about its parks. More than 165 miles of shoreline are owned and managed by NYC Parks. About half of that edge is natural; the other half is developed in infrastructure to secure the shoreline or provide public access to the water.

Resiliency planning in the parks department is a two-way e ort. On the one hand the parks require investments of hundreds of millions of dollars to rebuild them to accommodate future sea-level rise and storm inundation.

On the other hand, these parks are the city's first line of defense. They need to be designed to buffer nearby densely populated and built-up areas from storms. This challenge provides a unique opportunity to rethink natural shorelines, vegetation, and how infrastructure is used to secure the shore while providing public access and recreational amenities.

The Rockaway Parks Conceptual Plan, released in May 2014, exemplifies this. It lays out how to replace open space lost to Hurricane Sandy, improve existing parks on the Rockaway Peninsula, and craft a long-term vision "that integrates resiliency and enhances community protection," according to the NYC Parks website.

Ten projects are included in the plan, each with a combination of resilient approaches: connecting park areas to the reconstructed Rockaway boardwalk, which has been elevated above the 100-year- floodplain; restoring wetland, riparian, salt marsh, and forest areas; installing oyster reefs and restoring other natural habitats; creating natural shorelines; and designing extensive on-site stormwater handling capabilities. The parks include plenty of other great park features: sports fields, beaches, skate parks, climbing walls, boat launches, cafes, and community gardens.

This new era of parks planning, clearly not only draws on the rich history of New York City parks, but adds to it significantly. The beginning of the 21st century will be a time when the Big Apple's parks are marked by equity, quality, resiliency, accessibility, and more.

Scott Dvorak is the New Jersey Urban Program Director at the Trust for Public Land. He lives in Manhattan.

Resources

​Parks Without Borders Showcase Projects
Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn
Prospect Park, Brooklyn
Van Cortlandt Park, Bronx
Hugh Grant Circle / Virginia Park and Playground, Bronx
Jackie Robinson Park, Manhattan
Seward Park, Manhattan
Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens
Faber Park, Staten Island
Source: NYC Parks

New in Newark

The seven-acre Riverfront Park in Newark provides residents water access and space for recreation, while reflecting the industrial history of the site. Photo courtesy NJ.gov.

There have been decades of dreams, pages of reports, and dozens of proposals on how to develop a park along the Passaic River in Newark, New Jersey. Newark's history parallels that of so many American cities. European settlers founded it, displacing the Native Americans who had long lived in the area for its bounty of land and water, flora, and fauna.

Eventually, Newark became a shipping and industrial center, with the river at its heart. The city boomed. But, by the late 20th century, the docks and factories were long gone, leaving unused buildings, industrial infrastructure, and vacant land behind. Fast-forward to today, and the long awaited realization of public parkland along the Passaic River is a very real symbol of the city's renaissance (read more about Newark here).

In 2007 the city partnered with The Trust for Public Land to design and build a seven-acre park on publicly owned land in the Ironbound neighborhood. Public meetings informed project partners, including the Ironbound Community Corporation, of community desires and suggestions. Led by landscape architect Lee Weintraub, the team developed a design for the narrow site based on the design guidelines established during the community process: public access to the water, places for passive recreation and gathering, and a reflection of the history of the site.

This wasn't any old site. It is located on the site of the former Balbach Smelting Works (a remnant of Newark's industrial heritage), over landfilled portions of the historic Morris Canal that once ran across northern New Jersey, next to Riverbank Park, a 100-year-old park designed by Frederick Law Olmsted's firm, and running along the Passaic River, one of EPA's Superfund sites — the lower eight miles of the Passaic River is slated for a $1.4 billion cleanup.

While the city and the trust made their way through environmental investigation, permitting, and fundraising for the initial seven-acre space, Essex County was able to move forward on a 12-acre parcel immediately east of the site. The county built a soccer field, a Little League field, tennis courts, two playgrounds, a Field House, a maintenance facility, and a great lawn. It opened in summer 2012. (Essex County has the oldest county park system in the country and has many wonderful parks, including several designed by Olmsted's firm in the early 1900s.)

Meanwhile, the construction of the park being guided by the city and the trust began, with a boardwalk and floating dock, a public gathering space, and winding paths in 3.5 acres of green space, which opened this summer. Last fall, more ground was broken for an additional four acres, bringing the total up to 30 acres of parkland on the Passaic River — including the existing Riverbank Park and the aforementioned County Park on Newark's riverfront.

And this is just the beginning. In an effort lead by the Newark Community Economic Development Corporation, the city has hired James Corner Field Operations to design the next 15 acres of Newark Riverfront Park — bringing the park up the Passaic River along the city's downtown and north into the Lower Broadway neighborhood of the North Ward.

This continuous ribbon of riverfront green space and walkways connects vibrant neighborhoods — such as Lower Broadway and Ironbound — with downtown, Newark Penn Station (the largest multimodal transportation center in New Jersey), New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Prudential's expanded national headquarters, Panasonic's U.S. headquarters, Rutgers University-Newark, and the New Jersey Institute of Technology campus.