Susan Ferrera

Date of Award

Winter 12-20-2008

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Public Administration (MPA)

Abstract

In the current economic climate cities are preparing for the worst. During economic downturns urban public parks play an even greater role in the quality of life for the citizens of a city, as people stay closer to home. Parks provide the public a place to recreate, socialize, and exercise, among many things. Parks provide environmental benefits that are being valued more and more. These include the flow and intensity of storm water runoff, wildlife habitat, and carbon sequestering. Park funding has not kept up with the need to maintain parks and many parks throughout the nation are in a state of decay. Park managers, elected officials, and the general public have common concerns over this. They are also leading the way to fund parks. This thesis answers the question: Is private-public partnerships a good avenue for funding parks? This research study focused on the City of Berkeley that is an urban city in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay area. It followed three streams of research. These were: research of existing park foundations, trusts, and park partnerships; interviews of key informants from some of the organizations; a comparison of the park website of the City of Berkeley with those of cities of comparable populations size. This study concluded that park foundations may be too complex for the city to promote at this time, but park partnership and other groups are not. Park managers should analyze their available resource and those of the partnership organizations, synchronize their goals with those of the citizenship group, and formalize their relationship. These recommendations could be useful to elected officials, citizen activists, or private organization leaders, to name a few.

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