Center for an Urban Future’s Post

"At a time when New Yorkers are using parks and open spaces more than ever—and these places have become even more vital to the city’s future livability—the city can’t keep up with their growing needs, especially as its Parks Department absorbs a $20.1 million budget cut. Adequately maintaining the city’s public parks and open spaces will require sustained public investment." Along with calling for more investment in civic infrastructure, this commentary by John Surico elevates why and how New York City should make it easier for nonprofit and community groups to help care for parks and public spaces. And offers recommendations for cities everywhere to consider in moving from a "culture of no" to a "city of yes" when it comes to public-private partnerships for public space stewardship: ✅ Direct the city’s lawyers to simplify agreements around parks and open space care.  ✅ Develop a public space management handbook that includes parks and open spaces. ✅ Reduce the overhead costs for groups that support the needs of public parks and open spaces—starting with insurance. ✅ Ensure that the city’s proposed Public Space Academy includes parks groups. https://lnkd.in/e2faEn9h Center for an Urban Future #parks #publicspace #stewardship #care #maintenance #civicinfrastructure

NYC's public parks and open spaces face mounting maintenance needs, even as the city’s Parks Department absorbs a $20.1 million budget cut. To sustain a healthy and equitable parks system, NYC will have to restore funding. But that's not all that the city can do to help. In a new commentary, John Surico and I argue for one creative solution to the city’s perennial parks maintenance challenges: make it far easier for nonprofit organizations and community groups to help. The problem is that city regulations too often require that groups seeking to help their local parks jump through unnecessarily complex legal hoops that add considerable time and costs, often deterring them from getting involved. And while NYC Parks is launching crucial new efforts to help facilitate these partnerships, it can't clear the path all on its own. Fortunately, Mayor Adams can change this at little or no cost to the city: by directing the city’s lawyers to simplify and speed up partnership agreements with volunteer groups that want to help their local parks. Check out our newest commentary here:

The Center for an Urban Future has just issued a superb commentary about specific steps NYC could take to support neighborhood parks partners. The problems and solutions it identifies mirror those for small BIDs in NYC, which I wrote about with @RPA last year in Go Local! Help Us Help You. The through line, not just in NYC but in many cities, is the need for proactive and positive policies to make place-centered partnerships more empowered and equitable, through Trusted Partner programs and other innovations. NYC has made very good progress under its new Chief Public Realm Officer Ya-Ting Liu, but there's still much more to be done. Finding solutions to these issues across sectors and across cities is my focus at the Sustaining Places Initiative at NYU Marron Institute of Urban Management. https://lnkd.in/eW78_-8R Go Local Report: https://lnkd.in/eHUKcM6T Sustaining Places: https://lnkd.in/ePFEpsJr.

YOU PAY THREE TIMES Beyond thought-provoking. Whether the developer is public (a municipality), not-for-profit (the YMCA), or private (Lifetime), you don’t just pay for these buildings once. -You pay upfront when you have to find the initial capital. -You pay year in and year out as you have to operate these structures. -And you have to figure out how to pay for everything as it wears out over the lifecycle. Too often, the upfront part is (relatively) easy and the year to year turns into a struggle and not many think about funding the depreciation for how stuff wears out over time… And that’s where and when trouble arrives.

People’s Park: A Community Space Worth Fighting For East Bay - Aidan Hill People's Park is a vital green space in Berkeley that symbolizes free speech, community resilience, and environmental justice, but it is currently at risk of being reduced for housing development. The community demands that UC Berkeley, and the city pause these plans, explore alternative sites for housing, and revitalize the park to address homelessness while preserving its historical legacy. By working together, the university and city can transform the park into a thriving civic space that serves future generations without sacrificing green space in an already dense neighborhood. By addressing safety concerns through improved lighting and facilities, we can make the park accessible to all, day and night. The principles of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design suggest that well-lit, open spaces can reduce crime and increase community usage. Yet the responsibility doesn’t just lie in these superficial changes. UC Berkeley, as the leaseholder of the park, must be held accountable for maintaining basic amenities like sanitation and restrooms—necessities that it has neglected for far too long. USCPTED.com #USCA #CPTED https://lnkd.in/dBcBDDS7

Building inclusive spaces is an essential component of creating a robust, thriving community. When done well, it’s also one of the most effective ways to truly bring communities together in a more meaningful way than ever before. For example, Jacksonville’s Emerald Trail will encompass approximately 30 miles of trails, greenways and parks that encircle the urban core and link at least 14 historic neighborhoods to downtown, Hogans Creek, McCoys Creek and the St. Johns River. The trail links to 16 schools, two colleges and 21 parks, among other destinations like restaurants, retail and businesses, with 13 additional schools and 17 parks located within three blocks. Another great example is the Atlanta BeltLine, which continues to be built on a historic, defunct 22-mile rail corridor that loops around the city. The Beltline is a walking trail that connects a network of public parks, multi-use trails, transit, and affordable housing. It enhances mobility, connects intown neighborhoods, and improves economic opportunity and sustainability. And it’s been an incredible success. There are countless other examples, and in most cases they’ve achieved their missions thanks to thoughtful planning and inclusive execution. Finding ways to tie our communities back together for the benefit of all is what makes being part of those communities great.

People’s Park: A Community Space Worth Fighting For East Bay - Aidan Hill People's Park is a vital green space in Berkeley that symbolizes free speech, community resilience, and environmental justice, but it is currently at risk of being reduced for housing development. The community demands that UC Berkeley, and the city pause these plans, explore alternative sites for housing, and revitalize the park to address homelessness while preserving its historical legacy. By working together, the university and city can transform the park into a thriving civic space that serves future generations without sacrificing green space in an already dense neighborhood. By addressing safety concerns through improved lighting and facilities, we can make the park accessible to all, day and night. The principles of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design suggest that well-lit, open spaces can reduce crime and increase community usage. Yet the responsibility doesn’t just lie in these superficial changes. UC Berkeley, as the leaseholder of the park, must be held accountable for maintaining basic amenities like sanitation and restrooms—necessities that it has neglected for far too long. TheNICP.com #CPTED #USCA https://lnkd.in/gcPt9Qi6

People’s Park: A Community Space Worth Fighting For East Bay - Aidan Hill People's Park is a vital green space in Berkeley that symbolizes free speech, community resilience, and environmental justice, but it is currently at risk of being reduced for housing development. The community demands that UC Berkeley, and the city pause these plans, explore alternative sites for housing, and revitalize the park to address homelessness while preserving its historical legacy. By working together, the university and city can transform the park into a thriving civic space that serves future generations without sacrificing green space in an already dense neighborhood. By addressing safety concerns through improved lighting and facilities, we can make the park accessible to all, day and night. The principles of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design suggest that well-lit, open spaces can reduce crime and increase community usage. Yet the responsibility doesn’t just lie in these superficial changes. UC Berkeley, as the leaseholder of the park, must be held accountable for maintaining basic amenities like sanitation and restrooms—necessities that it has neglected for far too long. TheNICP.com #CPTED #USCA https://lnkd.in/grMn9-Hh

Say you’re building a new city from scratch—like the proposed city in Solano County—where do you start? First, I hope you’d buy a copy of The JOY Experiments, but then what? Like Steven Covey always used to say, you’ve got to begin with the end in mind. So, if it were me, I would first decide how I want my city to act like a community. How do I want to make citizens feel like they belong? Define and celebrate the city’s uniqueness? Foster trust and compassion? Starting with a societal vision keeps the focus where it belongs—on the people. Next, I would use a new city-building formula, which shifts from the old Live, Work, Play model to Play (35%) + Live (35%) + Work (30%) = JOYFUL CITY A redistribution of policymaking and city-building energy and investments in the following way gets us closer to cities that are truly sustainable in the 21st century. With that in mind, does Solano County fit the bill? While the city only exists on paper for now, a lot of what they’re saying sounds promising and fits with the JOY Experiments ethos. Their plans are online at californiaforever.com so check it out for yourself and report back in the comments. And if anyone knows how to reach Jan Sramek, let me know. I want to send him a copy of our book. #citybuilding #cityliving #urbandesign #urbanplanning #placemaking #socialconnection #joyfulcities #joyexperiments https://lnkd.in/grQz-HBv

It’s a tricky catch that neighbourhoods that already have the most wealth, education and privilege tend to be better at attracting funding and advocating for support to lead their own placemaking or community development projects.   In creating a placemaking process and resources for a diverse District like the Far North, I addressed this equity issue in a few ways.   Once a community is confirmed to receive support from the placemaking team, Council will engage – in a paid capacity – a community member or group to lead an asset mapping process in that neighbourhood.   This community representative (or group) will be paid a fixed fee to spend a few weeks ·     researching and conversing with local iwi and hapū; ·     mapping the physical assets of the neighbourhood and users’ sentiments; ·     mapping the community groups, sports clubs and other social assets and their aspirations and resources; ·     mapping the land ownership, natural hazard risks, vacant and neglected places; ·     meeting with their Council Navigator to learn about the parks, zoning and Council facilities; and ·     hosting a community hui to discuss the situation and opportunities.   This foundation encourages a broad view of the whole neighbourhood, establishes a strong initial relationship between Council and community and creates a community resource and knowledgeable leader that sets the place up well for ongoing community-led work.   We don’t want it to be a prerequisite that communities already have strong and active community groups. This process might help new groups to form where they don’t already exist.   It’s a tiered system, so communities new to this work are encouraged and supported to start with a small ‘quick win’ project with easy approvals – and build up to larger-scale work that might require resource consent, LTP submissions or significant stakeholder engagement.   This tiered system also makes it easy for Council to scale their approvals processes according to the significance (scale, duration, environmental impacts, etc.) of the project.   We hope that these steps will make it easier – or possible – for communities with no previous placemaking experience to get started, and for Council to direct its placemaking resources towards those who need them most. #placemaking #placemakingguidelines #placemakingguide #placemakingresources #farnorth #equity #engagement #engagmentmatters #growthplanning Far North District Council