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How
Urban Green Spaces Got Greener
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In
"How Urban Green Spaces Got Greener,"
New York Times, November 20, 2000, Andy
Schwartz, editor of PPS's "Public Parks,
Private Partners," talks about the
types of private organizations involved
in helping run parks that are described
in this new publication. |
...Like
the parks they protect, these organizations
come in many shapes and sizes. Andrew
Schwartz, an editor at the Project for Public
Spaces, an advocacy group in New York, recently
edited a study, "Public Parks, Private
Partners," that included an inventory of
the different kinds of parks organizations.
"They
really run the gamut," he said. "At
one end of the spectrum are small neighborhood
groups. At the other end are those who
are solely responsible for a park."
Their
mission depends on size and ambition.
Smaller groups tend to restrict themselves to
advocacy, fund-raising and organizing volunteers;
much larger associations sometimes get involved
in design, planning and construction of improvements.
Mr.
Schwartz cautioned that a conservancy can become
a victim of its own success. "Often
when these organizations get too successful,
" he said, "they city says, 'We don't
need to do this any longer.' The trick
is to keep the city involved and get it to fund
the park more than it had in the past."
For
more information on "Public Parks, Private
Partners," please see
http://www.pps.org/Products/products_publicparks.html
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