Nonprofit News and Comment

RECREATION & LEISURE

“Couple donates $2 million for Chinese Garden work at Huntington; The donation by former San Marino residents Judy Yin Shih and Joel Axelrod will fund the Clear and Transcendent Pavilion, a traditional Chinese structure.” By Mercedes Aguilar. Los Angeles Times. April 8, 2013. A former San Marino couple has donated $2 million for the second-phase construction of the Chinese Garden at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens. The donation by Judy Yin Shih and Joel Axelrod, who now live in Oregon, will fund the Clear and Transcendent Pavilion, a traditional Chinese structure, which will be at the edge of the lake on the garden’s undeveloped north side, Huntington officials announced. In a statement, Shih cited her experience as a Huntington docent in 2008 as helping to inspire the gift. “My experience as a docent not only raised my awareness of the varieties of Chinese gardens, but helped me develop a deeper appreciation for the understated grace and subtle meanings within a scholar’s garden,” she said. “I found a place where I can let my own garden grow.” The 1,129-square-foot pavilion will serve as an outdoor performance space for presentations of Chinese music and dance, according to Huntington officials. Work on the pavilion is expected to begin this fall and will feature elaborate woodcarving, roof tiles and stonework from the Suzhou Institute of Landscape Architectural Design in China. The construction for the performance space has also received more than $3.5 million from donors in China and the United States. Funding is still being sought for structures, such as a boat-shaped pavilion, a hillside-viewing pavilion and a terraced courtyard. The first phase of the project cost $18.3 million and was funded by more than 350 local and international donors, according to the Huntington.

“In a League of Their Own; Judge Landis loved baseball and hated trusts. He believed organized baseball was a monopoly. The Supreme Court disagreed.” Wall Street Journal. April 11, 2013. Review of Stuart Banner, The Baseball Trust. Over the years, various questions have vexed the smooth operation of professional baseball: whether a player has a right to bid his talents out to other clubs, whether a team in one city can move to another at will, whether the number of teams in a league can expand or contract. In each case, and in others, the answer has been guided by a long-ago ruling by the Supreme Court that declared baseball to be, in effect, a game and not a business. In “The Baseball Trust,” Stuart Banner traces the origins of that ruling and the legal logic behind professional baseball’s special status. In 1922, the Supreme Court decided that what was simply termed “organized baseball”—the forerunner of Major League Baseball—wasn’t involved in interstate commerce; hence, federal antitrust laws didn’t apply to it. A lot was at stake in the decision, not least the fates of players who felt tethered to one team for their playing careers. Baseball’s strangely feudal labor relations, Mr. Banner shows, go back to the game’s early days in America.

RECREATION & LEISURE

“Executive Director of High Line Group to Step Down.” By Lisa W. Foderaro. New York Times. February 11, 2013. Robert Hammond, who led the effort to save an abandoned elevated railway in the heart of Chelsea and turn it into a new kind of park, announced on Monday night that he would step down as executive director of Friends of the High Line by the end of the year. In an interview before the announcement at a meeting of the Friends’ board, Mr. Hammond said that he had no plans yet for his next act. But with the third and final section of the park now under construction, the timing seemed right, he said. Mr. Hammond co-founded the nonprofit group with Joshua David, now the Friends’ chief development officer, in 1999. Before his involvement with the High Line, Mr. Hammond, 43, worked as an entrepreneur on small start-up companies. “I always had three goals for the High Line: that it’s a well-loved park, that it inspires others to start their own projects and that it not be dependent on Josh and me,” he said. “It’s a good time to transition. I’m an entrepreneur at heart. My gut has been telling me that it’s time to start something new.” The High Line model is now being emulated from St. Louis to Chicago to Rotterdam, the Netherlands. And Friends of the High Line is in the midst of a highly successful capital campaign, with $81 million raised toward its goal of $125 million. That total will cover the expense of the final section, called High Line at the West Side Rail Yards and estimated to cost $90 million, while also establishing an endowment to help pay for future maintenance.

“New York Parks in Less Affluent Areas Lack Big Gifts.” By Lisa W. Foderaro. New York Times. February 17, 2013. Last year, Central Park received what is believed to be the largest gift ever given to an American park, $100 million, from the hedge fund manager John A. Paulson. When Frederick J. Kress, who sits on the board of the Flushing Meadows-Corona Park Conservancy, heard about it, he had only one thought: What about us? Flushing Meadows-Corona, which has been the setting for two World’s Fairs, is considerably larger than Central Park, at 1,225 acres, compared with 843. Last year, its conservancy attracted $5,000 in donations. The park’s bicycle and walking paths are cracked and pitted, Mr. Kress said, and its natural areas are overgrown with invasive species. “Central Park is doing pretty well,” said Mr. Kress, who is also president of the Queens Coalition for Parks and Green Spaces, noting that though Mr. Paulson’s home on Fifth Avenue overlooks Central Park, he grew up in Queens. “I’m not saying he owes anyone anything, but how about you give Central Park $98 million and Flushing Meadows-Corona $2 million? That two million would have gone so much further in an underappreciated park.” Mr. Paulson’s gift was only one of a number of large donations to the city’s parks: $20 million was given to the High Line in late 2011, an additional $10 million to Central Park this month, and $40 million was pledged to build a field house in Brooklyn Bridge Park, though the plan was abandoned. The gifts have put New York’s green spaces on a par with hospitals, universities and cultural institutions as objects of philanthropy. The largess has delighted city officials, who say it will ensure that New York’s signature parks have the resources to remain pristine while accommodating millions of visitors a year. But the donations have also highlighted the disparity between parks in Manhattan’s high-rent districts and those, like Flushing Meadows-Corona or Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, that are in less affluent communities. In those parks, conservancies and friends groups must struggle to raise any money at all.

RECREATION & LEISURE

“Historic Union Gym struggles to get up off mat; Looks to its roots while modernizing amid financial concerns.” By Jeremy C. Fox. Boston Globe. January 28, 2013. Billed as “America’s Oldest Gym,” the Union has been used for healthful recreation for 160 years. The gym recently began offering classes in the martial arts, including judo. With broad shoulders, powerful chest, and a bushy mustache that curls upward at the tips, Brendan McKee could pass for a strongman in an old sepia-toned photograph. McKee may indeed require herculean strength to usher the 19th-century gym he oversees into the 21st. He is director of operations for the Boston Young Men’s Christian Union, a historic gym on Boylston Street founded by Harvard students in the mid-1800s as a space for “self-improvement and healthful recreation.” McKee, on the job for 16 months, hopes to return the nonprofit to its roots by offering new programs for urban youths as well as a convenient, affordable workout center for adult members. For him to succeed, however, the Union Gym has to weather financial problems that recently shut its doors for nearly a month and find ways to attract new members to a facility that lacks the flash, but also the expense, of many competitors. For members and visitors, the gym is an unexpected and unpolished downtown jewel. Billed as “America’s Oldest Gym,” the facility sits behind a 138-year-old High Victorian Gothic façade on Boylston, near its intersection with Tremont, that is designated a Boston landmark and listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

LEISURE & RECREATION

“Private Fix for Public Parks; Companies Will Manage Six California Sites to Limit Closures Under Budget Cuts.” By Max Taves. Wall Street Journal. June 17, 2012. California is close to finalizing bids from private companies to take over day-to-day operations of six state parks, including Brannan Island here, in an unprecedented step by the state to prevent mass park closures after stiff budget cuts. On Monday, the state expects to finish its first corporate agreement, under which American Land & Leisure Co. would take over operations of three state parks for five years, the California Department of Parks and Recreation said. Three other state parks also are slated for private management, which covers running all concessions, visitor services, security and parks’ legal liabilities. The state will maintain ownership of the park lands. The corporate bids are part of California’s last-ditch effort to keep more state parks open. The nation’s second-biggest parks system by area after Alaska’s has been in a tailspin in recent years, with annual funding slashed by $23 million—or 20%—since 2009.”I’m not aware of any state that has concessioned the entire operation of a park to a commercial company,” said Phil McKnelly, executive director of the National Association of State Park Directors, a nonprofit funded by state parks. Other cash-strapped states have discussed putting their parks under private management but then not gone through with it. Facing the possible closure of 13 of its 30 state parks, Arizona in 2010 considered auctioning off park management to private companies, said its parks director, Bryan Martin. But the state “was able to engage” cities, counties and tribes to manage the parks, he said. California was scheduled to close 70 of its 278 state parks starting July 1. But besides the six parks covered by corporate bids, an additional 46 parks are now off the chopping block or are in negotiations to continue operating through efforts by municipalities, private donors and nonprofits, according to the parks department.
Related story:
“Saving Calif. State Parks: The End Of Public Funding?” All Things Considered/National Public Radio. June 20, 2012.

RECREATION & LEISURE

“Private funds for Calif. public parks questioned.” By Peter Fimrite. San Francisco Chronicle. December 15, 2011. The California state parks closure list is shrinking as philanthropists, nonprofit groups and the federal government step forward with money and resources, but questions remain about how private stewardship of public property will work. Nine of 70 parks have been taken off the state’s closure list so far, and park officials say negotiations are ongoing between the state and organizations trying to save 27 others, including the Benicia State Recreation Area, Benicia Capitol State Historic Park and Jack London State Historic Park. The proposed closures are a major crisis in California, where 278 parks cover 1.4 million acres, including 280 miles of coastline and 625 miles of lake and riverfront, and generate billions of dollars in revenue from tourism. The surge in private funding is in large part because of the recent passage of AB42, introduced by Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, which smoothed the way for nonprofit groups to take over park operations. The latest to be removed from the list of parks slated for closure on July 1 is Henry W. Coe State Park, near Morgan Hill, which at 87,000 acres is the largest state park in Northern California. A private citizens group from Silicon Valley agreed to donate the money for maintenance and operations through June 30, 2015. Similar agreements have been reached at Mono Lake Tufa State Natural Reserve, where a nonprofit foundation agreed to collect the fees necessary to keep the lake and surrounding facilities open. Tomales Bay State Park, Samuel P. Taylor State Park and Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park were taken off the list in October after the National Park Service agreed to take over security and operations. The question is, how will these agreements work over time? If parks remain open using donations, what is the incentive for legislators to put money for parks in the general fund budget? And who is going to stop a rich crook or pot dealer from taking a park off the closure list and using it for fiendish pursuits?

RECREATION & LEISURE

“Tony Hawk Foundation to give $10K for new SF skatepark.” No by-line. San Jose Mercury-News/Bay City News Service. December 8, 2011. Skateboarders in San Francisco wanting to be like Tony Hawk just got a boost from the skating legend himself — the city announced Thursday that Hawk is giving a $10,000 grant to a new South of Market skate park. The grant from the Tony Hawk Foundation is helping to fund the SOMA West Skate Park, located at Mission Street and Duboce Avenue, and improve other skate parks around the city, according to San Francisco’s Recreation and Park Department. The new skate park is scheduled to begin construction next spring and open in the fall. The department is marking the donation with an event Friday that will feature a performance by local pro skateboarder Steve Caballero and youth from the city’s winter skateboarding camp.

“Governors Island Alliance seeks nonprofit status; Advocacy group aims to become a 501(c)3 nonprofit in order to generate greater private donations.” By Lisa Fickenscher. Crain’s New York Business. December 9, 2011. Governors Island could have a lot more free concerts and entertainment in the coming years if a tiny advocacy group gets its way. The Governors Island Alliance, which among other things supports the visitor programs on the island, wants to become a 501(c)3 nonprofit in order to generate greater private donations. Currently under the umbrella of the Regional Plan Association, alliance officials believe that they will attract more corporate donors as a separate entity. “Being our own organization enables us to be a stronger voice,” said Robert Pirani, executive director of the Alliance. “Our goals are to continue to advance the island as a great public space for New York.” The Alliance expects to triple its budget over the next several years to $750,000, money it will use to support the free programs and network of volunteers who greet visitors to the island and maintain its grounds. The city has earmarked $266 million over the next two years to be used for infrastructure repairs on the island, including the construction of a water line from Brooklyn. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has made Governors Island a priority for his administration in creating more public park land for the city. “We want to make sure that Mayor Bloomberg’s vision for the island carries over to the next administration,” said Mr. Pirani.

RECREATION & LEISURE

“Christie Pushing Park Privatization.” By Heather Haddon. Wall Street Journal. November 3, 2011. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie famously told residents to “get the hell off” state beaches during Hurricane Irene, but on Wednesday he sent a different message to private entities: Come invest in them. Mr. Christie announced a multiyear plan to wean New Jersey parks off state funding by raising camping fees and farming out some park concessions and services—a privatization push that sparked immediate outcries from parks advocates and some elected officials. “No one wants to see a fast-food restaurant in a state forest,” said Assembly Environment Chairman John McKeon, a Democrat, in a statement. The plan, which is already under way, calls for companies and nonprofits to run park services like food concessions, lifeguarding and boat rentals in the 39 state parks and 50 historic sites. The state is looking to generate $15 million by 2015, or 38% of the $39 million parks operating budget. Leases and fees currently fund $8 million of the spending for parks. Mr. Christie said the plan would begin to generate parks revenue by the end of 2012.

“San Jose Family Camp still on the chopping block.” By Joe Rodriguez. San Jose Mercury-News. November 3, 2011. San Jose families who have toasted marshmallows over campfires, floated on inner tubes in a mountain pond or just snoozed under a ponderosa pine at the city’s old-fashioned summer camp may have to vacation somewhere else next year, and possibly every year from now on. “Everything’s up for grabs,” said Michael Flaugher, chairman of the parks and recreation commission, at a public meeting this week at City Hall. The commission, which is strictly advisory, decided a private concessionaire should run the San Jose Family Camp in the Sierra Nevada next year to save taxpayer money. Failing that, the commissioners recommended selling the camp provided San Jose residents could still use it. The possibility that the camp won’t open next summer hit campers hard. Liane Burton, a camper since 2007, wondered if city park officials have looked hard enough for creative ways to save the camp. She suggested a few ideas. One was naming new buildings for corporations or philanthropists that put up the money, a common practice on college campuses. Deputy parks director Steve Hammack said it would cost $10 million over the next 20 years just to replace the camp’s aging dining hall and bring the restrooms, carports and other facilities up to health and safety regulations.

RECREATION & LEISURE

“Quimby should launch her national park privately, councilor says.” By Nick Sambides Jr. Bangor Daily News. August 19, 2011. Environmentalist and millionaire businesswoman Roxanne Quimby should create her own park on the 70,000 acres she wants to donate to the National Park Service to show whether the concept can work, one of her proposal’s leading critics said Friday. Town Councilor Mike Madore, who spoke out against the park plan at a meeting with U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar at Stearns High School on Thursday, said he worried that Quimby’s refusal to take no for an answer was undermining the political process. “When you have a governmental chain of command that has stated that there is no governmental support to her proposed park and she simply circumvents the state of Maine to go to the federal government to do an end around, it concerns me,” said Madore, an ed tech at Stearns. “I told one of her people last night that I would hate to have to go ahead and teach a civics class about this.” “It undermines every check and balance on the state level,” Madore added. “I don’t think she is used to having anybody say no to her.” Quimby’s spokesman, land manager Mark Leathers, declined to comment on Madore’s statements on Friday. No one, Madore said, opposes the idea of Quimby using her park land in whatever legal way she wants, and showing that a park project can work as a private concern might be the best way to sell the concept.

RECREATION & LEISURE

“Brooklyn Bridge Park Awaits Funding Plan.” By Joseph De Avila. Wall Street Journal. June 1, 2011. A milestone for the future of Brooklyn Bridge Park is approaching as officials continue to look for ways to generate operating funds for the partially built public space that eventually will cover 85 acres. The original plan to fund the park’s expected annual expenses of $16 million called for building new housing within the park. That plan is opposed by many locals who say that housing would detract from the park. Now a committee of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corp., the nonprofit that oversees the park, is awaiting a final report from an outside consulting firm examining how the park can earn money to pay for its yearly budget. The report is expected in June. “The final report will provide a timely and incisive road map for a reliable funding plan,” said Regina Myer, president of Brooklyn Bridge Park Corp. The first portions of Brooklyn Bridge Park opened last year, and further construction is under way. On Saturday, an additional two-acre section of the park opened. Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park, another part of Brooklyn Bridge Park where Jane’s Carousel will be housed, is scheduled to be ready this summer. When completed, the park is expected to cost about $350 million, of which the city and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey have already committed a combined $224 million for construction. The city will chip in an additional $44 million for building costs, but only after the park’s board agrees on a plan to pay for the park’s yearly maintenance and operation. Bay Area Economics, a consulting firm, delivered a preliminary report to the park’s committee on alternative funding earlier this year that examined nine potential revenue sources. It included the creation of a park improvement district where property owners in the area would pay an assessment, parking revenue, fund raising and other measures. These options could deliver between $2.4 million to $7 million annually, the report said. Critics said one potential source for money that wasn’t fully examined in the report was deriving revenue from about 30 buildings near the park owned by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York Inc., part of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Watchtower has applied for a permit to construct an administrative complex in Warwick in Orange County, N.Y. With approval from the town, Watchtower may later sell its Brooklyn properties.

RECREATION & LEISURE

“States Try to Wean Parks Off Funding.” By Stephanie Simon. Wall Street Journal. April 9, 2011. Budget cuts may prompt dozens of state parks across the U.S. to close, cutting off access to popular campgrounds, rock-climbing routes and historic sites just as the summer arrives. Lawmakers in states including California, Washington and North Carolina are weighing budgets that would strip millions of dollars in taxpayer funds from parks, forcing some to close their gates and others to scale back restroom cleaning, trail maintenance, law-enforcement patrols and other services. A threatened federal government shutdown in Washington—averted in a budget deal reached Friday night—would have closed national parks, too. State parks face a longer-term challenge, though, as lawmakers in some states move to cut off all taxpayer funds and to insist that the parks run more like businesses, spending only what they can earn through user fees, concessions sales and corporate sponsorships. Those proposals come amid a broader restructuring of state budgets that includes deep cuts to education, transportation and other services in the face of big budget shortfalls. The Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation moved to a business-like model last year. The department laid off 25 employees, raised camping and visitation fees by around $5, and arranged for prison inmates to do maintenance on the cheap. It also cut deals with corporate sponsors; an outdoor-clothing maker, for instance, will subsidize park ranger uniforms embossed with the company’s logo. It also sought volunteers to clean restrooms and empty trash. Among those who stepped forward: a square-dancing group and a motorcycle club. The agency now receives just $1.4 million from the state general fund, out of a $30 million annual operating budget, and will soon be self-sufficient—without closing parks, said Director Nancy Merrill. “We’re being really creative,” she said.” Budget cuts may prompt dozens of state parks across the U.S. to close, cutting off access to popular campgrounds, rock-climbing routes and historic sites just as the summer arrives. Lawmakers in states including California, Washington and North Carolina are weighing budgets that would strip millions of dollars in taxpayer funds from parks, forcing some to close their gates and others to scale back restroom cleaning, trail maintenance, law-enforcement patrols and other services. A threatened federal government shutdown in Washington—averted in a budget deal reached Friday night —would have closed national parks, too. State parks face a longer-term challenge, though, as lawmakers in some states move to cut off all taxpayer funds and to insist that the parks run more like businesses, spending only what they can earn through user fees, concessions sales and corporate sponsorships. Those proposals come amid a broader restructuring of state budgets that includes deep cuts to education, transportation and other services in the face of big budget shortfalls. The Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation moved to a business-like model last year. The department laid off 25 employees, raised camping and visitation fees by around $5, and arranged for prison inmates to do maintenance on the cheap. It also cut deals with corporate sponsors; an outdoor-clothing maker, for instance, will subsidize park ranger uniforms embossed with the company’s logo. It also sought volunteers to clean restrooms and empty trash. Among those who stepped forward: a square-dancing group and a motorcycle club. The agency now receives just $1.4 million from the state general fund, out of a $30 million annual operating budget, and will soon be self-sufficient—without closing parks, said Director Nancy Merrill. “We’re being really creative,” she said.