Kevin Loughran states that the High Line preservation effort had its roots in the city’s elite. He lists professionals, politicians, and celebrities who backed Friends of the High Line, and traces its path to achieving city government approval. Loughran argues that the High Line is geared exclusively towards the upper middle class, “predominantly white young adults” (57), and supports his argument with an ethnographic sketch of the park. This is used as an example of the phenomenon of growing inequality between parks in high-income and low-income communities.
The Community Parks initiative is intended to have the opposite effect. It is designed to rebuild parks in underprivileged neighborhoods. This is intended to address the issue of park equity, as discussed in this New York Times article. Large parks in wealthy areas tend to get consistent funding, while small parks in poor areas get little to none. Mayor Bill de Blasio created this initiative to help fund these neglected parks. Perhaps this will help bridge the gap between the super-privileged parks such as the High Line and underprivileged parks that have been all but ignored.
I would like to comment on a recent project in my neighborhood, the Far Rockaway boardwalk. It was recently developed and is clean and pretty. Where I live, near the east tip of the boardwalk, there are sprinklers, playground equipment, a skate park, benches and a food stand that sells ice cream and barbecue.
The boardwalk caters to a diverse group of people. When I am there, I see schoolchildren, teenagers on skateboards, fishermen, families, joggers, and people doing push-ups on the playground equipment. There are sometimes amateur bands playing music on the side of the boardwalk. On the “off season” when the beaches aren’t packed, the boardwalk seems to be populated exclusively with locals. It is, in my opinion, an excellent example of a public park.
Tamar, I really like your blog and the article you chose. I am also really glad that all of these small parks are getting renovated. The tiny parks squeezed into random places are often some of my favorite places to go. They are peaceful and small, and do not have that crowded feeling I get at bigger parks like Central Park. It is also about time that these parks are renovated. When I am in a random part of New York City, and I want to sit down somewhere, it is usually in one of these types of parks, but sadly a lot of them are disgusting and even a little dangerous.
However, thirty-five parks are not enough. There are over 1700 parks according to nycgovparks.org, and a lot more than 35 of them need to be repaired. It is a pity there is not enough money to fix them.
I like how you brought up the idea of what is an excellent public park? You described one near where you live as being one filled with a diverse group of people and having a lot of food vendors. Granted, this sounds like an amazing park, but I do not think this is necessary for a successful park. The park right next to queens college is just a few basketball courts, a couple playgrounds and some table with chessboards on it; and it is one of my favorite parks. It is filed with mostly kids and a few elderly people, so when I go there I am often the only white twenty year old (excluding the friends I came with), but I think it is still a great park. It is not diverse at all, and you have to leave the park to buy food, but it is in good order and very comfortable. I do not think a park needs to be something as perfect as the one you described. They can be simple like the one here and still be perfect for the job. These types of parks are good enough for what we need, and probably cost less, so I think that should be the goal for the parks being renovated.