Fight for Light Policy Brief: A Public Champion for the Public Realm 
2020
Unlike many other cities of its size, including Paris, Los Angeles, and Boston, New York lacks a central position within its government for planning and maintaining the public realm. Composed of streets, sidewalks, parks, plaza, waterfronts, natural areas, and more, this system of public spaces represent roughly 40 percent of the city’s land mass. This policy brief, created in collaboration with the Municipal Art Society of New York, outlines the vast array of agencies that govern these areas, and calls for the creation of a New York City Director of the Public Realm.

Building the Future of New York: Parks and Open Space
2020
Co-created by the New York Building Congress and NY4P, this report analyzes what it takes to build and maintain New York City’s open space and creates concrete recommendations that can accelerate the City’s economic recovery and reaffirm its place as a leader in healthy, livable cities.

Bright Ideas: New York City's Fight for Light
2019
This report was jointly created by the Municipal Art Society of New York (MAS) and NY4P and summarizes nearly a year’s worth of research, debate, and conversation about the role of sunlight in the public realm. It serves as the foundation of a campaign jointly led by the two organizations called Fight for Light, which seeks stronger protections for the natural resources that are essential to an equitable city and the health and happiness of city dwellers.

Improve Your Park Quick Guide
2018
This quick guide to New Yorkers for Parks and other city resources shows you where to get started to kick off your advocacy.

Clean & Green
2017
A simple and easy-to-understand guide, Clean & Green answers the question, Who takes care of our parks? This visual explainer will deepen your knowledge of the parks systems in NYC, and make your advocacy easier and more effective. 

Measuring Neighborhood Park Use 
2017
New Yorkers for Parks, in partnership with Bronx REACH CHAMPS, led by the Bronx Community Health Network, made this guide to help city residents measure how people use neighborhood parks. Once you know what works and what does not work in your park, based on evidence collected through observing how people use a neighborhood park, you can make the case for change with local decision makers - from elected officials to parks staff.

How Can I Improve My Park?
2014
This collaboration of New Yorkers for Parks, the Center for Urban Pedagogy and Partnerships for Park is designed to help park advocates navigate the often complex road to securing funding for local park improvements – from maintenance concerns like litter or broken benches, to capital projects, such as a new dog run or playground.

A Survey of Capital Projects Management Among New York City Government Agencies
2014
Like all essential public resources, New York City’s parks require significant investments. Existing parks need renovations and repairs. Growing and underserved neighborhoods need new parks. The NYC Parks Department, which is responsible for carrying out capital improvements in parks, has been criticized by many for running behind schedule and over-budget on these projects. Working with Public Works Partners, NY4P has explored how the department can improve its capital process through interviews with several City agencies that conduct capital projects, along with the City's offices of Management and Budget and Contract Services. The report offers a number of straightforward steps that the Parks Department can take to ensure a capital process that is timelier, more cost-effective, and transparent. 

Understanding Playground Utilization
2013
In an era of budget constraints, how can the Parks Department most efficiently allocate public dollars? Answering that question requires tracking visitor patterns across the park system. In this study, NY4P partnered with New York University to demonstrate how such a model could work – specifically, in ten playgrounds across the city, across the four seasons. The report includes a discussion of how such a tracking method could help the city assess not only Parks Department resource allocation, but also initiatives such as the Department of Transportation’s Public Plazas Program. The study also details specific observations reported by users of the ten playgrounds – playgrounds are vital neighborhood resources and particularly important assets for lower-income households, for example – and provides detailed briefs on each property.

Supporting our Parks: A Guide to Alternate Revenue Strategies
2010
As municipal governments increasingly seek innovative ways to augment public dollars for city services, NY4P has become a leading voice on creative financing mechanisms for new parks. This report provides a balanced, comprehensive look at potential revenue streams to generate funding outside of the City budget to support parks. NY4P is building on this study by exploring funding mechanisms currently being employed for the creation and maintenance of parks in New York and elsewhere, and looking at whether they increase financial resources available to the city’s 2,100-plus parks while preserving their character and ensuring equitable distribution of parks resources citywide. 

Parks for All New Yorkers: Immigrants, Culture, and NYC Parks
2008
This report, conducted in partnership with Baruch College’s School of Public Affairs, explored the connections between park services, cultural uses of open space, and immigrant communities, and offers recommendations on how the Parks Department can best serve this rapidly-growing segment of the city’s population.

Making the Most of Our Parks
2007
NY4P commissioned the Citizens Budget Commission to analyze the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. The report made several policy recommendations, including a call for  stronger incentives for increasing concession and other earned revenues, institutionalized responsibility for strategic planning for parks, the introduction of a timetable for bringing all parks facilities to an acceptable condition, improved the quality and productivity in parks maintenance and operations, and the establishment of preventive maintenance and longer periods of usefulness by funding routine repairs and replacements in the operating budget.

Raising the Tide: Strategies for New York City’s Beaches 
2007
Outreach to community groups, City agencies, and park advocates informed the findings of this report, which examines the primary issues affecting beach users, including lifeguard shortages, poor bathroom maintenance and water pollution. 

A New Turf War: Synthetic Turf in New York City Parks
2006
NY4P examined the financial and environmental costs of natural vs. synthetic turf, as well as the implications for usage, maintenance, health and safety. The report assesses community input processes and offers policy recommendations for the best use of turf in neighborhood parks. 

How Smart Investment Pays Its Way
2002
This report, conducted with Ernst & Young, examines the economic impact of investment in parks on surrounding real estate values. NY4P conducted site surveys of six parks across the city and researched the history of capital investment in them. Ernst & Young assessed each park’s relationship to local real estate value by analyzing tax assessments, sale prices and turnover rates of the commercial and residential properties in the immediate area in comparison to the broader marketplace.

Natural Areas Initiative 
2002
The Natural Areas Initiative report presents a blueprint for the protection and effective management of New York City’s 12,000 acres of Parks Department-owned natural areas, which include estuaries, forests, ponds, and other habitats. A joint publication of New York City Audubon and NY4P, the report promotes cooperation among nonprofit groups, communities, and government agencies to protect natural areas and raise public awareness about the value of these open spaces. 

Limpio y Verde: ¿Quién Cuida de Nuestros Parques? 
2019
Un guía simple y fácil de comprender que responde a la pregunta: ¿quién cuida de nuestros parques? Este documento visual aumentará su conocimiento del sistema de los parques de la ciudad de Nueva York y ayudará hacer su apoyo a los parques más fácil y efectivo. 

¿Cómo Puedo Mejorar Mi Parque? 
2015
Esta colaboración de los New Yorkers for Parks, el Center for Urban Pedagogy y Partnership for Park está diseñado para ayudar a los defensores del parque navegar el proceso complicado para lograr fondos para mejoras de parques locales - de las preocupaciones de mantenimiento, como la basura o bancos rotos, a proyectos de mejoras de infraestructura, como una nueva zona para perros o el aumento de la señalización o mejor adaptadas para personas minusválidas. 

Clean & Green: Who Takes Care of Our Parks? (Simplified Chinese) 
2019