Neighborhood Effects: People and Organizations that Make Parks Better

A Mobile Workshop/Self-Guided Tour—Organized by the Environmental Committee NYMetro APA

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  • Welcome and Overview
  • Getting Started
  • Brooklyn Bridge Park
  • Bryant Park
  • Central Park
  • High Line
  • Riverbank State Park
  • Union Square Park

Welcome and Overview

Successful parks have always contributed to their surrounding communities, but they are also shaped, in turn, by local community groups, organizations, and zoning initiatives. What you will learn: In this workshop you will find examples of . . .

  • Ways that urban parks contribute to a 21st century agenda for environmental and public health.
  • “Neighborhood Effects,” i.e. land uses and trends in surrounding neighborhoods that impact parks; and
  • Strategies used by various institutions (profit, non-profit and government) to cultivate or mitigate neighborhood effects.

From the NYMetro Environmental Committee: We hope the time-flexible format of these tours/lessons adds to your enjoyment as you visit these extraordinary urban parks. We would also like to invite you to join us for a reception on Monday evening, May 8, for the purposes of comparing notes and meeting the guest experts who narrated your podcasts.

GETTING STARTED

Scroll down to learn more about the case studies and contributors featured in this workshop, or click “GETTING STARTED” to begin.

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Central Park

In Central Park visitors are asked to consider the issue of new and planned tall towers that cast shadows on the park. Elizabeth Goldstein, of The Municipal Art Society, narrates a podcast describing her organization’s “Accidental Skyline Project” which offers predictive tools and analysis as well as pointing the way to solutions.

Riverbank State Park

Riverbank State Park is one of three state parks in Manhattan and one of the top five most visited of all New York State parks. In the story of this park’s origins we also find one of the most important case studies of environmental justice of the last half-century. Visitors are welcomed to this park and given the details of that case study by podcast narrator Cecil Corbin-Mark, Deputy Director of WE ACT for Environmental Justice.

Union Square Park

Visitors to Union Square Park will consider this site as a hub for sustainable urban living. Among other things, Union Square became the place where New Yorkers proved composting is practical even for apartment dwellers. Speakers for these podcasts are Christine Datz Romero, the co-founder and President of the Lower East Side Ecology Center, and Renee Crowley, Project Manager of the NYC Compost Project at LESEC.

Brooklyn Bridge Park

Visitors to the Brooklyn Bridge Park will hear Nancy Webster, Executive Director of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy and author of the recently released book A History of Brooklyn Bridge Park explain unique challenges and qualities of a waterfront park as well as the special collaboration that helped create this haven at the water's edge.

The High Line

An old elevated rail line once slated for removal, the High Line linear park is today the second most visited tourist site (per sq. ft.) in New York City, after Times Square. Visitors will hear from Erik Botsford, Department of City Planning, about the role of zoning in ensuring the park's success.

Bryant Park

Visitors to Bryant Park will hear the voice of Dan Biederman, founder and President of the Bryant Park Corporation, explaining the management and funding techniques that help the BID ensure the ongoing success of the park. Photo: Playing the Scandinavian game of Kubb at the park.

  • Welcome and Overview
  • Getting Started
  • Brooklyn Bridge Park
  • Bryant Park
  • Central Park
  • High Line
  • Riverbank State Park
  • Union Square Park
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