Name: Static Interactive
Price range: $

Open space is a fundamental element in any decent and desirable living environment. We are emerging, indeed we have already emerged, into an era when parks and open space are taking on a new and vital importance for the American people. The test of the future is not only how well we do in outer space and in our international relations; we are also challenged to produce healthy and happy communities for all Americans in this period of explosive metropolitan growth. In the burgeoning Tri-State New York Metropolitan Region, the task of preserving adequate open land is a formidable one, and no less critical than the need for schools and housing and highways. To carry out this task, the people of the Region and their elected representatives at all levels of government have a great responsibility to act swiftly and boldly. Time and space are running out.

The problem of open space is magnified because we have fallen far behind in providing parks for the Region’s existing population.

Why A Race For Open Space?

The New York Region, which extends for roughly 50 miles from its center in Manhattan, has an area of 7,000 square miles. It is about 25 percent developed; the rest of its terrain is in fields, woods, wetlands, mountains and beaches. Superficially, there appears to be plenty of land left. But more than a third of the land suitable for urban development has already been used up. And two powerful forces leave no room for complacency. The first is the rising demand for outdoor recreation; the second is the startling increase in the rate of consumption of land for development. Both derive from the same source: a Region which is growing dramatically in population and economic strength.