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From July 28 - 31, 2001, New York City will host the first international conference on urban parks. The Urban Parks Institute at Project for Public Spaces is currently organizing the conference in partnership with the Prospect Park Alliance, the Central Park Conservancy, Partnerships for Parks, and more than 20 other local park organizations, as well as the Wallace-Reader's Digest Funds.

Overview

Since 1996, a group of leaders in the urban parks field has gathered annually to share their experiences about how urban parks can revitalize urban communities and to learn how to build the capacity of their organizations and increase the effectiveness of their public/private partnerships. The attendees, leaders in local and national efforts from major cities around the United States, included directors and board members of parks conservancies and open-space advocacy organizations, community partners, parks commissioners, national organizations, and Federal agencies - such as the Trust for Public Land, the White House Council on Environmental Quality, and the National Park Service, among others.

This year the Urban Parks Institute is expanding the conference significantly to include interests beyond the traditional parks-oriented professions. To ensure a diverse mix of participants, invitees are encouraged to attend the conference alongside potential partners from institutions and organizations - belonging to both public and private sectors - with whom they are working in their respective cities. These partners will be able to get more out of the conference and its overlapping events by working as a team than they otherwise could as individuals. For example, the president of a local parks conservancy or advocacy group could bring that city's parks commissioner, and a member of the chamber of commerce or downtown association, among others. A city greenway advocate or coordinator could bring a member of the city or state Department of Transportation, Public Works, etc.

The working theme of the conference is "Parks Are Essential Civic Resources." This theme will cover both big-picture questions-such as how can parks become part of the debate on sprawl, public health, and other civic livability issues-and practical issues such as how to work with community groups, transforming vacant land, and developing effective public/private partnerships and programs around parks and other public spaces.

Why New York?

With models of almost every innovation in the urban parks movement today, New York City is the perfect venue for the 2001 Urban Parks Institute. Central Park is considered the birthplace of the parks conservancy model - people come from all over the country to learn from the Conservancy how the public and private sectors can work together to effectively manage and maintain parks. Brooklyn's Prospect Park, considered by many to be Olmsted's finest urban park, is managed and programmed by a partnership between the city and the Prospect Park Alliance, a model of community outreach and stewardship. Midtown's Bryant Park is frequently touted as one of the best-managed and maintained urban parks in the country, and some of the newest, most heavily used and well-managed waterfront parks in the world are in Battery Park City.

New York also has some of the best new playgrounds in the country, the oldest community gardens and the most vital and active small neighborhood parks in the world. There are hundreds of organizations in the city dedicated to preserving and enhancing the city's parks, open spaces, and neighborhoods.

Conference activities will occur throughout the city, and will include field trips to communities guided by those who live and work there, and whose unique stories and knowledge need to be communicated beyond New York. The heads of the city's venerable conservancies and partnerships will also provide tours of their parks and share their experience and wisdom. In short, attendees will experience the city through its parks and neighborhoods, and be able to take home a new base of knowledge and experience gained from urban parks leaders from around the world.