The Environmental History of Parks and Billionaires

Soon to be a new public/private park?

A new park may soon appear on the Hudson River in New York City.  Pier 55 will be an entirely artificial park and performing space, built on piers extending out into the river.  It won't be cheap: total cost will be about $170 million.

What's especially interesting is that the park will be almost entirely privately-financed, with media mogul Barry Diller contributing more than $130 million.  Leading politicians, including New York Mayor Bill Di Blasio, and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, have apparently jumped on board.

This new park has received a fair bit of attention.  It should also be interesting to environmental historians, for several reasons.  One reason is the contrast between how this park has won quick approval, with almost no debate, and the fierce arguments that have taken place whenever other developments have been proposed for this stretch of the river.  These arguments focused on both environmental and urban planning concerns (I discussed them earlier this year, here and here, when I was living in New York).

The reason for the lack of argument this time around is pretty obvious: Diller is contributing most of the cost of the park, with almost no public funds required.  He's also been able to hire some of the best design talent around.  But this highlights how we seem to be entering a new chapter in the history of parks, in which wealthy individuals can bypass the usual processes involved in deciding where parks will go.  I imagine this park will be a lovely amenity, but if new parks will be located where the wealthy want them, shortcutting more representative, democratic processes, they may well appear mainly in places where the wealthy themselves like to be: in "better" neighborhoods, leaving less advantaged areas shortchanged.  This tendency will be reinforced whenever public park funding is cut because of expectations that it can be replaced by private funds.

There's a larger story here as well: the existence of individuals with enough disposable cash to create their own parks reflects the increasing inequality seen in the United States (and to a lesser extent elsewhere, including Canada).  We see inequality mainly as an economic and social issue (sometimes experienced, of course, in terms of environmental injustices), but it's worth examining how inequality can also reshape our relations with nature, not least by bending the ways in which parks and other favored areas are created.