On January 9th, 2019, the Center for New York City Law and the Impact Center for Public Interest Law of New York Law School hosted New Yorkers for Parks for their Open Space Dialogues: Healthy City, Active Places. This installment of the dialogues explored the ways New Yorkers have and want to create opportunities for active recreation and health. The discussion focused on answering questions such as: how parks contribute to different scales of health; what park designs and programming prevent or catalyze active recreation; how parks can balance changing user groups, sports popularity, and informal recreation demand; what are neighborhood knock-on effects for parks with an active recreation and health focus; and where are recreations needs of New Yorkers not being met? Video of the event can be found here.
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Jarrett Murphy moderates the respondents’ panel featuring Tony Hillery, Regina Myer and Marlene Pantin. Image Credit: CityLand
On November 19, 2018, New York Law School hosted New Yorkers for Parks for their Open Space Dialogues: From Vacant to Vibrant. This installment of the Open Space Dialogues explored the ways New Yorkers have and want to, create nontraditional open spaces in unusual places, from a single lot or tunnel to entire neighborhoods and whole islands. The event was kicked off by Center for New York City Law Associate Director Brian Kaszuba, who introduced New Yorkers for Parks Executive Director Lynn Kelly. Kelly welcomed the speakers and introduced the topic. (more…)

Lynn Kelly, New Yorkers for Parks Executive Director addresses audience at Open Space Dialogue Series at New York Law School. Image Credit: CityLand.
On October 9, 2018, New York Law School hosted New Yorkers for Parks for their Open Space Dialogues: Parks & Transportation. The event was kicked off by Joel Steinhaus, Chairman of New Yorkers for Parks, who was introduced by Executive Director Lynn Kelly. Mr. Steinhaus began by welcoming everyone to the second year of Open Space Dialogues, with the focus of this year’s dialogues on parks, open space and the public realm. He stated that New Yorkers for Parks has been the “City’s independent champion of quality open space for all New Yorkers, across all five Boroughs; Well- maintained open spaces foster dialogue, support congregation and free expression, and are a critical component of democracy.” The focus of last night’s Open Space Dialogue was on the “intersection of parks and transportation”.
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