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How do you a make a city vibrant and healthy? One good place to start is by investing in its parks like New York City’s mayor Bill DeBlasio has committed to doing.
On October 7, 2014 the mayor announced a $173 million dollar initiative to re-create 35 parks (65.5 acres of parkland) in communities of high need.
According to an NYC press release, the first phase of the Community Parks Initiative (CPI) will impact at least 220,000 New Yorkers, across 55 different neighborhoods, who live within a 10 minute walking distance of the targeted parks.
“Through targeted investments and programming, we will engage New Yorkers by re-creating parks in communities that need open space improvements the most, Mayor de Blasio said in the press release. “This is a framework that will address system-wide needs for park equity with solutions that have lasting and resilient results for our city’s neighborhoods.”
To locate areas of great need, NYC Parks conducted an in-depth analysis of park needs across the city’s five boroughs: the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island the city.
They first identified parks with less than $250,000 of capital investment over the last 20 years and then located neighborhoods with the greatest need based on the following determinants:
- neighborhoods with a higher than average density;
- high population growth; and
- an above-average percentage of residents living below poverty.
Park planners also identified potential local partners, programming opportunities, and local priorities for each neighborhood.
For more details of this change, click here.
By The Numbers
33
percent
of Latinos live within walking distance (<1 mile) of a park
