Parks—or Playgrounds for Billionaires?

Inga Saffron, writing for The New Republic, provides a long commentary on the emergence of private interests as the funding and operations arms for an opulent new era of parks, as most obviously exemplified by a recent proposal by Barry Diller to fund a $130 million Pier 55 park in the Hudson River.

"Given the spectacular green oasis that [project architect Thomas] Heatherwick has conjured up, it may seem petty to look this particular gift horse in the mouth," writes Saffron. "But the billionaire’s island, as some New Yorkers have called the project, is the latest, most extreme example of how big money and business elites are warping the way America’s urban parks are funded, widening the amenities gap between rich and poor neighborhoods."

Saffron goes on to provide a well-detailed history of the crisis in municipal management of parks that emerged as urban centers declined during the 1960s, '70s, and '80s. Following the lead of the independent management scheme exemplified by New York’s Central Park Conservancy, however, "independent park managers are now a major economic development force remaking and gentrifying cities."

The editorial is afforded more space to make its case than it would be if it had been printed in a daily newspaper, and its well worth the read to see the Pulitzer-Prize-winning Saffron detailing the consequences of efforts such as Diller's, which also have examples in cities like Philadelphia, Dallas, and Washington D.C. The article also concludes with a proposal to "avoid a two-tier system of have-and-have-not parks."