Veronica White

New Parks Chief Is a Voice for Expansion By Lisa W. Foderaro Oct. 12, 2012 Maybe it was the experience of growing up in a family with 12 children in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, that propelled Veronica M. White outdoors and fostered a passion for parkland. Shore Road Park, with its sweeping views of New York Bay and the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, became Ms. White’s extended backyard. “That’s where I learned to play baseball and basketball and where I learned how to ride a bike,” said Ms. White, who took over as head of the Department of Parks and Recreation last month, replacing the longtime commissioner, Adrian Benepe. “Parkland is the reason people want to be in New York and stay in New York. It affects every New Yorker,” she said. Ms. White, 53, applied for the top parks job once before, shortly after Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg was elected in 2001. But Mr. Benepe, then a parks administrator, was named commissioner instead; he stepped down this year to join the Trust for Public Land, a nonprofit group, in a recent exodus of officials as the mayor enters his final year in office. A relative outsider to the parks department, Ms. White is not new to city government. An environmental lawyer by training, she most recently served as the first executive director of the Center for Economic Opportunity, which was created in 2006 under Mr. Bloomberg to find innovative ways to address poverty. Before that, she held positions at the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development; her public service reaches all the way back to the administration of Mayor Edward I. Koch. ADVERTISEMENT Continue reading the main story Ms. White, who now lives on Central Park West, said she knew that the clock on her “dream job,” as she calls it, was ticking. And she has quickly immersed herself in the department’s vast system of 1,700 parks, 500 community gardens and 14 miles of beaches, while setting out to solidify the capital projects and initiatives undertaken in the past decade. Under Mayor Bloomberg, several expansive parks and environmental projects were either started or nudged forward, including Governors Island, Freshkills Park on Staten Island, the High Line on the West Side of Manhattan, and Brooklyn Bridge Park along the East River. There has been a push to open up the waterfront, with newly developed piers and esplanades, in all five boroughs. The city has also pledged to plant a million trees, and is nearly two thirds of the way toward that goal. ImageVeronica M. White, the parks commissioner, said of her probable term, “It’s 15 months and I’m going to squeeze in a lot.” Veronica M. White, the parks commissioner, said of her probable term, “It’s 15 months and I’m going to squeeze in a lot.”Credit...Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times On a recent outing to Randalls Island, where the parks department oversees 63 ball fields and an experimental rooftop garden, Ms. White talked about her tenure. “It’s 15 months and I’m going to squeeze in a lot,” she said, surveying garden herbs. “It’s the best job in the world, and I’ll make the most of it.” She is especially committed to seeing through the plans for eight regional sites that were singled out in the mayor’s blueprint for sustainability called PlaNYC, including McCarren Park Pool in Brooklyn and Soundview Park in the Bronx. The properties received an injection of $290 million, allowing the city to tackle large, complicated restorations that had lain fallow for years. ADVERTISEMENT Continue reading the main story Among them is the planned restoration of High Bridge, a 1,200-foot-long pedestrian bridge linking the southwest Bronx to Upper Manhattan that has been closed for 40 years. The project is expected to cost $62 million. And Ms. White, who oversees 3,500 full-time employees, said she would make sure the department continued to look for opportunities to acquire new parkland. Under the Bloomberg administration, the city has added 737 acres, bringing its total parkland to 29,000 acres. Some have criticized the city for the expansion of parks, saying it should focus instead on better maintaining the existing ones. Maintenance budgets have been cut in recent years. But while the department recently hired a consulting firm to study its approach to park maintenance, Ms. White said she believed that securing new open space for future generations was paramount. “You don’t get a second bite of the apple,” she said. “The boroughs aren’t getting any bigger. If the land is available, we need to seize the opportunity.” Park advocates say Ms. White’s involvement in disadvantaged communities will ensure that the department’s resources are spread fairly and evenly in the city. “There’s a lot of optimism about her background and experience,” said Holly M. Leicht, executive director of New Yorkers for Parks, a nonprofit group. “She’s worked in low-income areas and a lot of different neighborhoods, and the hope is that she will have a very expansive view of the park system.” Ms. White could remain in her position after Mr. Bloomberg leaves office. The former parks commissioner Henry J. Stern served 14 years, straddling three administrations. If Ms. White does have more than 15 months of sway over parks, she will most likely put a special focus on the environment. She said she particularly wanted to introduce recycling bins in parks and spread the word about green roofs. “They’re good for the environment and good for people’s health and good for eating habits,” she said. Asked if her apartment building on the Upper West Side had one, she said, “Not yet.” But her smile seemed to suggest that it would not be long. Editors’ Picks How a Neighbors’ Feud in Paradise Launched an International Rape Case Kanye, Out West How to Be an Expatriate in 2020 Continue reading the main story A version of this article appears in print on Oct. 13, 2012, Section A, Page 19 of the New York edition with the headline: New Parks Chief Is a Voice for Expansion. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe