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Public Parks, Public Funding |
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| David R. Jones | |||
| Session: 4/18/00 10:15am - 11:30am | Author Info | ||
Urban parks are crucial to the quality of life of cities. They especially provide a vital service for those residents who cannot afford to leave the city for a trip to the country. While private investment should be encouraged, there must be a guarantee of equity for less advantaged neighborhood parks. The condition of a park should not be determined by the political or financial assets of those who live in its catchment area.
My perspective on New York City's parks and their role in urban revitalization is threefold: as a resident of the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, as a founding board member of the Prospect Park Alliance, and as a former Youth Commissioner of the City of New York.
Today, New York City operates 479 public parks, comprising almost 20,000 acres. It has set apart more of its total land for parks than any other major U.S. city. But because the city is so densely populated, people here must share less park land per resident than those of most other cities.
Too often urban parks are looked upon as mere amenities, even as frills that can be done without. Certainly that attitude was evident in the disastrous cutbacks in park maintenance that were a large part of the fiscal belt tightening during the 1970s when the city seemed on the verge of bankruptcy. It took years of considerable effort by both public and private groups to restore what was lost by the neglect of our parks during the budget crisis.
LUNGS OF THE CITY
New York City's parks are precious. Well-maintained parks are one measure of the improved quality of life for all New Yorkers. For those millions who cannot afford to leave the city for a weekend in the country, our parks perform an especially vital service. They are the lungs of our city. For youngsters, young families with children, for the two million residents of the city who live below the poverty line, a public park is a place where they can leave the noise, tumult, and tension of the city behind, relax, and enjoy themselves.
There are numerous pleasures to be found in New York City, but many are expensive. Not so public parks. Playing baseball or cricket, barbecuing lunch or dinner, taking a walk or riding a bike, enjoying nature, or just sitting on a bench - these are activities that recharge people who must endure the daily grind of life in a large city.
I know from my time as Youth Commissioner that facilities for young people in New York City are meager. Parks are a vital resource where young people can go after school or on weekends. They are places where youth activities - organized or unorganized - provide an alternative to "hanging out" on the street. Also, park facilities and programs that engage young people send a message that they are not being ignored, that their well-being is important to us.
The park in my neighborhood, Prospect Park, was designed in 1865 by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, the creators of Central Park. It borders on the Park Slope and Brooklyn Heights sections of Brooklyn, areas of relative affluence. But it also borders on Crown Heights, Bedford Stuyvesant, and other areas where many poor families live in overcrowded conditions. The Bureau of the Census reported that in South Crown Heights, 15.9% of the renter households are crowded or overcrowded. Similarly, in Flatbush, the figure is 22.2%, in East Flatbush 14.1%, and in Borough Park 16.0%. Just these four Brooklyn neighborhoods hold nearly 550,000 people.
PROSPECT PARK ESSENTIAL
For these people, mostly African Americans, Caribbean Americans, and Latinos, Prospect Park is not an amenity - it is a necessity. They see the park as essential as the subway system, garbage pickup, or police and fire protection. Prospect Park is a place where their children can play in safety and where they can socialize with friends and family. It is their trip to the country.
After the neglect of the 1970s, the city has seen a campaign by private citizens and organizations to help with the maintenance of some parks. The Prospect Park Alliance, the Central Park Conservancy, and the Bryant Park Restoration Corporation are examples of public/private partnerships which have had a profound influence on the conditions in these parks. Indeed, before the Bryant Park salvaging effort began, it was gated off to the public, infamous as a place where drugs were bought and used. Today it is an oasis of calm and beauty in the midst of midtown Manhattan where people flock to socialize, rest, and eat an out-of-doors lunch.
CHANGING RACIAL COMPOSITION
My interest in Prospect Park is entirely personal. It is where I played as a kid. It is also almost an archetype for the issues of poverty, race, and class in big cities. Over the years, the racial composition of the park's neighborhoods have changed from predominately white to predominately African American and Latino. Naturally, this change was reflected in the multitudes that regularly use the park.
The neglect of Prospect Park - broken street lights, lawns turned to dirt, refuse uncollected - was in direct relation to the change in the race of those who live in the area and use the park. What we are talking about is an absence of fairness when allocating park funds. As middle and upper class whites moved out of the area between 1950 and 1970, public funding for the park diminished.
Prospect Park was in serious disrepair when the Alliance was formed in 1987. As the first chairman of its finance committee, I can tell you that we were able to find the resources to save the park. But while Prospect Park is a success story today, it should not be held up as a model of how to finance public parks. Few city neighborhoods have the resources necessary to resurrect their parks. Also, as private funding of parks has become more prominent, the city has withdrawn funds from the parks budget. It is necessary to provide set asides from this private philanthropy to ensure that all parks benefit, especially the most distressed parks which often cannot depend on the financial resources of those who live in the neighborhood.
One of the reasons the Prospect Park Alliance has been successful is that it actively involves the people in the neighborhoods in park enterprises. The Alliance reaches out to surrounding community organizations to develop its cultural, educational, volunteer, and youth programs. Its youth program emphasizes management leadership skills, networking, critical thinking skills, and working with other people - qualities that often determine success in adult life. Prospect Park is much more than just a place to lie on the grass and sun yourself. Many of its programs are much more than mere recreational activities.
The number of people who benefit from our parks is immense. Millions of park users frequent Prospect Park every year. A recent survey by the Parks Council found that the frequency of use of city parks was so great that it noted, "The next time you visit a park during a week day look around and realize that one out of every three people you see will be back tomorrow and nearly 60% will be back at least one more time during the week."
With such heavy usage, parks can rapidly deteriorate if not constantly maintained. Cleaning and maintenance are major issues for park users. After a busy weekend, for instance, Prospect Park does not always have enough staff and volunteers to clean up as well as we would like. A new system of maintenance, called zone management, has been initiated, which divides the parks into areas. Each area has a group of volunteers dedicated to upkeep and restoration within its own sector of the park. This plan is already working well in Central Park.
NEED FOR PUBLIC FUNDS
The partnership of private parks organizations and the city's Department of Parks and Recreation has sparked a resurgence in a number of our major parks. These examples may be followed by similar efforts in parks across the city. But not every public park has the financial and organizational resources available within its catchment area to establish a Central Park Conservancy or even a Prospect Park Alliance. Recent cuts in the Parks Department budget especially threaten smaller and less prominent parks.
We need more public funding to ensure that parks will not slip back
to the conditions of the 1970s. Parks are public facilities, and they should
be operated by the city for the public. Private sector investment should
be encouraged, but there must be a guarantee of equity for less advantaged
neighborhood parks. Parks help make New York a more civilized, livable
city. Their health should be the business of public officials and public
agencies. The physical condition of a park should not depend on the political
and financial clout of those who live in its catchment area.
Copyright 2000 By Author
David R. Jones
President
Community Service Society of New York
David R. Jones is President of the Community Service Society of New York, an anti-poverty group that focuses on health care, public education, housing, and welfare-to-work issues. An attorney who holds degrees from Yale Law School and Wesleyan University, Mr. Jones has served on the board of New York City's Health and Hospitals Corporation and was vice chair of the Primary Care Development Corporation. He is presently a member the Advisory Board of the New York City Independent Budget Office. E-mail address: djones@cssny.org.