Riverside Park & the Riverside
Park Fund: A Partnership Encourages Community Participation
An Urban Parks Institute Success Story
New York, NY
A public/private partnership
between the New York City
Department of Parks and Recreation and the Riverside Park Fund (RPF) has brought
about new
approaches to the management of Riverside Park. The nonprofit RPF is able to
perform
functions that the City cannot, such as fundraising and coordinating volunteer
efforts,
which help ease the impact of the Park's budget cuts.
Project Background
Located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Riverside Park borders the Hudson
River from
72nd to 158th Streets. The surrounding neighborhoods are racially and
economically
diverse.
The condition of Riverside Park deteriorated as budget cuts chipped away
funding for
maintenance and repairs. In an effort to answer community needs for garden space
and find
cost-effective alternatives to maintain the Park, Park administrator Charles
McKinney
began entrusting small areas of the Park to individuals in 1981. The area is now
made up
of 35 individual garden plots known collectively as the 91st Street Community
Garden, one
of the most beautiful and vibrant areas in Riverside Park. The success of this
project
encouraged McKinney to turn more Park areas over to the public.
Roles and Responsibilities: The Parks Department still provides basic
services
and maintenance, but now about 40 areas in the Park are planted, maintained and
cleaned by
individuals or groups. McKinney guides the process of selecting areas to turn
into
community projects, referring to the Park's Master Plan. The Parks Department
can also
arbitrate between groups who have an interest in a particular area of the Park,
acting as
the ultimate keeper of the public space.
Civic, community, and business leaders formed the Riverside Park Fund in 1986
to
increase public awareness about the Park and raise funds for programming,
renovations,
maintenance, and capital projects. Although there is no formal agreement between
RPF and
the City of New York, the Riverside Park Fund has an extensive influence in the
Park: RPF
produces all Park publications, organizes and advertises for special events, and
recruits
and organizes all volunteers.
These public outreach efforts have transformed RPF into a high profile group
capable of
leveraging significant private donations. RPF is better equipped to handle
contributions
than the Parks Department; it can use funds immediately, while the Parks
Department
requires a public approval process and City-mandated bidding. Also, since the
Parks
Department is not permitted to lobby for funding, RPF steps in to lobby public
officials
for support and prevent further budget cuts.
Funding and Implementation: The City of New York is still the major
source of
funding for Riverside Park, which has an operating budget of $1 million and
capital budget
of about $1.5 million. The Riverside Park Fund contributes about $200,000 per
year in
donations and coordinates the efforts of over 1,000 trained volunteers. Since
its
founding, RPF has raised over $8 million for the Park; notably, RPF lobbied for
$2.4
million in federal funding for the construction of Riverside Walk, a four-mile
pedestrian
and bicycle path along the river.
RPF solicits donations, then selects enhancement projects with McKinney by
polling Park
users about what they would like to see built or improved. McKinney is an
ex-officio
member of RPF's Board of Directors and serves as a resource for the Board. While
he cannot
vote on RPF decisions, he helps RPF avoid conflicts with the Parks
Department.
The Riverside Park Fund also advises neighborhood groups on fundraising and
eliciting
volunteer support for their own projects in the Park. For example, RPF
encourages groups
to write letters to elected officials, bring neighbors to community board
meetings, and
ask residents to pledge support for the project. Once a strong constituency is
developed,
the Parks Department is more likely to allow a particular neighborhood group to
adopt an
area of the Park.
Impact: Community efforts have snowballed: increasingly, residents are
committing their time and money to rebuild Riverside Park. The patchwork of
projects --
undertaken by residents, approved by the Parks Department, and supported by RPF
-- ranges
from gardens and fountains to playgrounds and tennis courts. The partnership
between the
Parks Department and RPF facilitates community input and ensures that the
efforts of
private groups and individuals build on each other without conflicting with the
Park's
Master Plan.
Contacts:
Charles McKinney, administrator, Riverside Park, 212-408-0264
James Dowell, executive director, Riverside Park Fund, 212-870-3070
(March 1996)
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