How does Newark currently stack up against other American cities in terms of its open space?
Dougherty: There’s not really such a thing as a national average when it comes to open spaces needs, however, cities of similar size to Newark have probably three to four times more open space than Newark does. On average Newark has about two acres for every thousand residents. That’s much different in the Ironbound section of Newark, where they only have a half an acre for every one thousand residents. So other cities of comparative size have about seven to eight acres per thousand people, so we are a little bit behind what we should be. Recently there have been some mindset changes in city administration in moving more towards the positive end of that rather than the negative end. One of the things that the Conservancy has been focusing on with the city administration is making certain that everyone has a park within a reasonable distance from their home. Branch Brook is wonderful; Weequahic Park is another fantastic park; West Side is undergoing significant renovations; however, tho
