Tags: parks

The Obama Administration is reportedly considering a program called “Shrink to Survive,” which would selectively bulldoze blocks of abandoned real estate in 50 economically depressed US cities and replace them with parks, forest and meadows. The plan is based on a downsizing scheme in Flint, Michigan–once the home of General Motors–where citizens are already advocating the use of vacant lots as community gardens. 

For our Freshkills Park Talk two weeks back, Dr. Steven Handel shared insights into the emerging field of urban restoration ecology, which focuses on the challenge of bringing ecological diversity back to degraded lands like brownfields and landfills.  He discussed his research at the Freshkills Park site and others in the region and went on to describe how his expertise has informed the design of Orange County, CA’s Great Park.

Next Friday, we’ll be taking a field trip to visit the green roof at the Parks Department’s Five Borough Technical Services Complex on Randall’s Island.  This is no ordinary green roof–it’s the fourth largest in New York City (at over 15,000 sq ft) and uses 13 different green roof systems.  

According to Urban Ecologist Robert DeCandido, 60% of native plant species ever recorded in the State of New York can currently be found in New York City–a statistic DeCandido attributes to the City’s large public parks.  Even so, populations of native species are shrinking in every borough except for Staten Island. 

Installation of composting toilets in public facilities is catching on.  In New York City, The Bronx Zoo and Queens Botanical Garden have been operating restrooms with composting toilets, with no need for sewer lines, for the last few years.   The technology in both facilities is made by Clivus Multrum and resembles a conventional toilet, except that it uses only 3-6 ounces of water, in combination with a bio-compostable foam, for flushing. 

It’s a common belief that access to green space in our everyday lives is crucial for the well-being of humans, especially the majority who live in urban environments.  Studies have shown that greenery and green space makes us happier and physically healthier, and reduces crime rates. 

No need to be indoors to see art this summer.  Here’s a list of New York City parks playing host to a whole variety of art installations.  Pictured above is DDP 2.0 (Digital Dirt Processor) by Ethan Long, on exhibit at Rockaway Beach at 32nd Street until November 1. 

Urban Omnibus interviews designers Margie Ruddick, Sandro Marpillero and Linda Pollak about the Queens Plaza Bicycle and Pedestrian Landscape Improvement Project.  Some good discussion about the potential of the urban park, salvaging industrial history in the making of green spaces and the question of “How can something hard, urban and harsh operate ecologically?” 

With the opening of the West Harlem Piers Park at the end of May, the Hudson-flanking edge of Manhattan became an unbroken strip of public park space.  Designed by W and Archipelago (with initial support, like Freshkills Park, from the New York Department of State Office of Coastal, Local Government & Community Sustainability under Title 11 of the Environmental Protection Fund) the completed West Harlem Piers Park represents a decade of engagement among various community groups and individuals. 

Free Bike Fridays continue at Governors Island this summer.  Friday visitors can borrow a free bike from Bike and Roll for up to an hour (beyond that timespan, we’re talking rentals); you can also bring your own bike.  The entire two-mile waterfront promenade of the island is open, contributing to a total of five miles of car-free cycling.

The first section, anyway–running between Gansevoort Street and West 20th Street.  Design of the formerly-abandoned-elevated-rail-line-turned-chic-urban-park was led by Field Operations, the landscape architecture and urban design firm that’s also designing Freshkills Park.

Lots of photos and coverage of the High Line’s opening in the New York Times, Curbed, Gothamist, DesignNotes and the High Line blog.

We get a lot of raised eyebrows when we first talk about the Freshkills Park Project with the uninitiated.  Some folks are put off by the idea of landfills in general, and some are familiar with the stigma the site has given Staten Island over the past half century.

The Hiriya landfill in Tel Aviv, a 2,000-acre site adjacent to the city’s airport, has a lot in common with the Freshkills Park site.  From 1952 to 1999, the landfill was Israel’s largest garbage disposal site, at one point receiving one third of the country’s waste. 

[vimeo vimeo.com/4951004]

Last week, the Municipal Arts Society (MAS) hosted a panel called Urban Parks in the Twenty-First Century: Creating a New Model.  Park designers, administrators and other experts discussed the some of New York City’s most innovative new park projects: Concrete Plant Park  in the South Bronx, Riverside South on the Upper West Side, and, of course, Freshkills Park.  

Another volunteer opportunity on Staten Island, removing invasive weeds, watering and mulching at Ocean Breeze Park this weekend:

Natural Resources Group: Stewardship Day
Ocean Breeze Park
Saturday, May 30, 9 am-2 pm

Sign up is through the Million Trees website, along with more Million Trees volunteer events on Staten Island and throughout the city.

A nice little segment about Freshkills Park has been posted on the NBC Nightly News site.

The Forum for Urban Design’s 21^stCentury Park & the Contemporary City conference ended yesterday.  Wednesday’s panel of brand-name landscape architects included James Corner, George Hargreaves, and Michael Van Valkenburgh and focused on the need to renew post-industrial landscapes and brownfields as opportunities for creating new parks.

We’re often asked whether there are other landfills in the world that have been turned into parks and natural areas.  There are, in fact, a lot of them, including many hundreds to thousands of unofficial dump sites and historic landfills whose operation preceded any type of government regulation (Flushing Meadows, we’re looking at you). 

Last Thursday’s installment of the Freshkills Park Talks lecture series was terrific.  Ed Toth, Director of the Greenbelt Native Plant Center (GNPC), discussed the importance of floral biodiversity in urban settings, the GNPC’s history and operations–it’s one of the only municipal native plant providers in the country, if not the only one–and several citywide initiatives it’s taken on recently, including the Great Pollinator Project. 

For us, supporting the creation and use of parks seems like a no-brainer. Natural preservation and appreciation, physical exercise, communal interaction–what’s not to like?  But that’s a gut response and not a data-driven one. Meanwhile, a lot of research has been conducted on the perceived and actual contributions of parks.