The Role of Unconventional Urban Greenspace Groups in New York City

Urban greenspaces are crucial to human and environmental health, but there are many challenges with securing widespread equitable access to greenspace, especially in densely populated cities. Community-created greenspaces on underutilized land, termed “unconventional” greenspaces, represent an important potential way to expand greenspace access to communities with the greatest need for it. We characterize key attributes of the structures and organizational networks of unconventional greenspace groups in New York City. We find that, despite variation in structure and function, groups face many similar challenges with distributing labor, communicating, and securing resources. We propose key ways that partner organizations could expand their support for unconventional greenspace groups as well as strategies for unconventional greenspace groups themselves that have proven effective. We hope these findings help guide policy and motivate future research.