Securing The Future Of Central Park

On October 23, John A. Paulson and the Paulson Family Foundation announced a gift of $100 million to the Central Park Conservancy (CPC) to sustain the fundamental role of Central Park as one of New York City’s leading cultural institutions and the world’s most extraordinary public park. In attendance at the announcement were Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Parks Commissioner Veronica White, CPC President Doug Blonsky, CPC Chair Thomas Kempner Jr., CPC founders Betsy Barlow Rogers and Richard Gilder, former Parks Commissioners Adrian Benepe and Henry Stern, and the employees of the Central Park Conservancy.

Mr. Paulson’s donation is the largest gift ever made to the Central Park Conservancy. It is also the largest gift to any public park and one of the largest ever made to a New York City cultural institution. It will sustain and advance the innovation of the Conservancy’s management and maintenance practices and allow for improvements to park-wide infrastructure, Central Park’s 21 playgrounds, 130 acres of woodlands, five visitor centers, and youth and family programming and recreation facilities.

The Conservancy’s management practices will be sustained and developed as a model for public-private partnerships locally and worldwide. Already, the Conservancy’s model has influenced the management of public spaces such as Prospect Park, Brooklyn Bridge Park and Battery Park in New York City. Mr. Paulson’s gift comes at a time of unprecedented use of Central Park: with more than 40 million annual visitors, Central Park is visited by more people than any other New York City cultural institution.

Since 1980, the Central Park Conservancy has managed the investment of nearly $700 million into Central Park, almost $550 million of which was raised by the Conservancy from hundreds of thousands of individuals, corporations and foundations for the Park’s restoration and maintenance. The Conservancy is responsible for the physical management of the Park along with its funding, privately fundraising more than 80 percent of Central Park’s $45.8 million annual budget.

For 153 years, Central Park has been the people’s park. Thanks to the vision and generosity of benefactors like John Paulson, Central Park’s future as the park New York City needs and deserves is secure.

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