New York City must add new parks as population booms

With New York City approving preliminary plans and designating a nonprofit developer for the transformation of an abandoned underground trolley station into the world’s first solar-illuminated underground park, a major step has been taken in the creation of the Lowline. But this imaginative act of urban alchemy is just the latest of a series of re-imaginings of defunct civil infrastructure as new parks and public spaces, and the city is once again a trendsetter in this arena.

The High Line on Manhattan’s west side, of course, may be the “grandmother” of these spaces, which some refer to as “urban infrastructure transformations” and others as “multifunctional infrastructure.” They are a product of the evolution and densification of cities in the 21st century, as immigrants from other countries and rural areas flock to urban areas for employment and a richer cultural life. Across the country and throughout the world, cities long ago replaced rural areas as the home of the vast majority of people – in the United States, at least 83 percent of Americans live in cities or suburbs.

As cities’ populations continue to boom, as in New York, the need to remain economically competitive, livable and environmentally sustainable through the creation of new and attractive parks, combined with the scarcity of open space ripe for park development, has made seemingly impossible and expensive projects worthwhile.

Before the abandoned elevated freight rail line was turned into the High Line Park, plans were already underway to transform abandoned piers and wharves into linear waterfront parks, and the city and state of New York invested $400 million each in the creation of Hudson River Park and Brooklyn Bridge Park. The Trust for Public land is turning barren, asphalt schoolyards into attractive, green community playgrounds that capture stormwater runoff. Governor’s Island, a former fort and Coast Guard base, has been transformed into a spectacular new park and cultural center, old industrial areas along the once-polluted Bronx river transformed into parks, and in the biggest magic act of all, the 2,000-acre former Fresh Kills landfill is already well under way in its evolution to spectacular, hilly park and natural area.

With New York City’s population still growing and Mayor Bill de Blasio poised to add tens of thousands of units of new affordable housing by upzoning many neighborhoods, there are no active plans to add new parks to accommodate all those new residents. But fortunately, a handful of visionary ideas are already on the drawing boards, waiting for the mayor to give the green light and allocate relatively modest amounts of money to get them built, compared to the massive, $6 billion park-building program of his predecessor, Michael Bloomberg.

Here are five projects that already have the strong support of City Council Parks Committee Chairman Mark Levine and many other elected officials (but not yet City Hall), that could transform the city further, adding net new green space to make healthy, livable communities:

QueensWay: This 3.5-mile abandoned LIRR line in central Queens will be transformed with the help of the Trust for Public land into a linear park and greenway. The QueensWay will provide a park amenity to almost 100,000 residents who live within a 10-minute walk, and create safe cycling and walking paths for children and adults to commute to nearby schools and transit hubs, adjacent to the perilous Woodhaven Boulevard, the most dangerous road in Queens. At 47 acres and an estimated cost of $122 million, it will provide more than twice the length and seven times the acreage of the High Line at half the cost.

BQGreen: Plans developed by Brooklyn landscape architecture firm DLANDstudio to build a park on a deck over the sunken BQE in South Williamsburg already have the full support of the hierarchy of Brooklyn elected officials. BQGreen would add a four-acre park atop the noisy BQE trench, bridging a divided neighborhood and adding a new athletic complex for park-starved residents. Economies of scale could be accomplished by using funds that will be necessary to replace the existing 60-year-old bridges that span the BQE.

Tibbetts Brook daylighting: This freshwater stream, which flows down from Westchester into Van Cortlandt Park, gets funneled into a huge underground culvert and shunted off to a sewage treatment plant. “Daylighting” this brook, and creating adjacent pedestrian and bike paths, would create a new greenway for Bronx residents and help the city clean up its act by reducing combined sewer overflows and energy costs.

Staten Island North Shore Greenway: The North Shore of Staten Island is home to many of the borough’s poorest residents, and even with a handful of modest parks and recreational amenities, access to them is difficult, and opportunities lacking for safe long-distance cycling, running and walking. Planners have proposed a five-mile North Shore greenway, similar to the bike and pedestrian paths that line the shores of Brooklyn and Manhattan, to provide those needed amenities as well as a green link between the ferry, and cultural destinations such as Snug Harbor.

Harlem River: Both the Manhattan and Bronx sides of the Harlem River are like the “final frontier” for waterfront park and greenway development. With a number of waterfront park projects already completed on the Manhattan side, the missing links need to be filled in, completing decades of unfinished work in East Harlem. On the Bronx side, overcoming barriers that include rail lines and highways will not be insurmountable challenges to providing opportunities for waterfront exercise and contemplation for Bronx residents from Yankee Stadium north to where the newly daylighted Tibbetts Book would enter the Harlem River.

Across the country, cities are engaged in a “peacetime arms race” to build more, better and bigger parks that will attract new residents, businesses and visitors, improve public health and the environment, and make more viable communities. After many years of leading the pack, New York City needs to begin investing again in new park creation.

Adrian Benepe is senior vice president and director of City Park Development for the Trust for Public Land. From 2002 to 2012, he served as New York City’s parks commissioner under Mayor Michael Bloomberg.