Central Park Conservancy
| Motto | Central to the Park |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1980 |
| Founders | Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, Richard Gilder, Gordon Davis, Bill Beinecke |
| 13-3022855 | |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | 40°45′51″N 73°58′18″W / 40.76424°N 73.97169°WCoordinates: 40°45′51″N 73°58′18″W / 40.76424°N 73.97169°W |
|
Area served
|
Central Park |
|
Key people
|
Douglas Blonsky (President & CEO) |
| Website | centralparknyc |
|
Formerly called
|
Central Park Task Force, Central Park Community Fund |
Central Park Conservancy is a private, nonprofit organization that manages Central Park under a contract with the City of New York and NYC Parks. Since its founding in 1980 by a group of dedicated civic and philanthropic leaders, the Conservancy has invested more than $800 million toward the restoration and enhancement of Central Park and is considered a model for urban park management worldwide. With contributions from Park-area residents, corporations and foundations, the Conservancy provides 75 percent of the Park’s $65 million annual operating budget and is responsible for all basic care of the 843-acre park.
The Conservancy was born out of community concern during the Park’s rapid decline in the 1970s. New York City’s financial and social crisis left America’s first major urban public space virtually abandoned – a dustbowl that residents came to view as a dangerous, crime-ridden space. The Park had deteriorated so badly that some advocated handing it over to the National Park Service. Many advocacy groups had been working separately to improve conditions in Central Park. Two of them – the Central Park Task Force and the Central Park Community Fund – were trying to address management concerns and improve physical conditions in the Park. The Central Park Task Force was led by Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, an urban planner, writer and civic activist; the Central Park Community Fund was founded by Richard Gilder and George Soros.
The Fund commissioned a management study, led by Columbia University Professor E.S. Savas, which concluded that in order for the Park to be better managed it needed a single and unpaid individual employed by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation to oversee its daily operations. It also recommended the establishment of a private, citizen-based board that would advise the overseeing individual. The suggestions of the Savas report were supported by Mayor Edward I. Koch's Parks Commissioner Gordon Davis, and in 1979 the city established the Office of Central Park Administrator and appointed Elizabeth "Betsy" Barlow Rogers as the first Central Park Administrator. Rogers maintained that Central Park was a cultural institution, no different than the city's renowned museums and performance venues. Backed by the suggestions made in the Savas report, she proposed following in the footsteps of those institutions by establishing a private board to help support the Park.
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Wikipedia