Center for City Park Excellence

Center for City Park ExcellencePhoto credit: Darcy Kiefel

The Center for City Park Excellence (CCPE) leads our research on parks and works to create, improve, and promote urban parks. Research at the center explores what makes city parks successful—and how those parks provide economic, ecological, and social value to their users. CCPE maintains an authoritative database on U.S. park systems and assists state and local leaders in quantifying the benefits these systems provide—helping to advocate for parks as a community investment.

Experts at the center explore the role of parks in neighborhood revitalization, produce reports and publications on innovations and best practices in park management, lecture on urban park topics to diverse audiences, and advise advocacy groups and public agencies.

CCPE's widely cited annual report, City Park Facts, and the The Excellent City Park System report have become critical tools for park advocates, city planners, journalists, city promoters and others. In partnership with the City Parks Alliance.

Center for City Park Excellence Reports

Building Bridges: A Community-Based Stewardship Study for an Equitable East River Park

How can we ensure that the parks we build in cities make a difference for our communities—especially when it comes to protecting them from the impacts of climate change? This study dug into that question, using a park in New York City as an example of how engaged citizens lead to better results.