Private Developers Building More Public Parks in New York City

Parks are springing up around new developments in New York. In the old days what would have been a private amenity is increasingly likely to be a new public park. "Typically mandated by zoning laws, these private-public hybrids are an effort to balance the demands of the real estate industry with the needs of the public, especially where projects have the potential to significantly alter the landscape," C. J. Hughes writes for the New York Times.

Some complain that these private parks are too specifically designed to serve the broadest group of people, but they do get used. "While city-run parks and playgrounds tend to have a shared visual vocabulary, these new parks have distinctive elements, as most are being created by a different developer," Hughes argues.