In 1993, a budget shortfall prompted the City of Rancho Palos Verdes to reconsider its priorities. Pressed for cash, Rancho Palos Verdes eliminated its recreation programs. Before getting out of the recreation business, the city surveyed the surrounding area and discovered that private for-profit and non-profit organizations already were providing — at reasonable prices — most of the recreation services the city was running.

After hearing the city would be dropping the recreation programs, many of the class instructors went to the city and said, "We will continue the programs if you will rent us your facilities." The result: many of the city recreation classes still are being offered. The only difference is they are being run privately and without a subsidy from the city. In fact, the city is now making a small net profit from the facility rental.

Turning over partial ownership or management of city parks to non-profit groups and neighborhood associations often is the best way to ensure they remain a public asset. New York City’s Neighborhood Open Space Coalition has assumed control from the city of hundreds of abandoned lots and parks in this way, turning many dangerous eyesores into gardens. Nearly one-fourth of the city’s nearly 1,500 public parks are now cared for by community associations under the Operation Green Thumb program.

The non-profit Central Park Conservancy has raised more than $100 million for New York City’s Central Park since its founding in 1980, taking over the care of trees, lawns and plants, and providing more than half the Park’s operating costs. By 1989, 72 percent of Central Park users said the park felt safer after the Conservancy got involved. Crime dropped 59 percent and robberies plummeted 73 percent. The drop in crime is attributed to the large increase in park activities put on by the Conservancy. Good uses drove out a lot of the bad uses.

The Conservancy has since funded two-thirds of the renewed landscaping project "Wonder of New York." When the project is completed, the Conservancy will have paid for just over half of the $135 million in capital improvements in Central Park since 1980.

As manager of the park, the Conservancy has protected the park by maintaining and then increasing park staff. Since 1991, Central Park has lost 54 city-funded staff due to budget cuts. Today, the Conservancy’s payroll includes 172 of the park’s 244 workers, and the city now pays only $5.4 million of the park’s $15.9 million total operating budget. Additionally, the city has profited from the renewal of Central Park, taking in $4.25 million in concessions from the skating rinks, vendors and many other sidewalk businesses.

Conservancy leaders recently have called for outsourcing the management of all of the city’s parks, for it would bring competition, accountability and marketplace discipline.

Located in an upper-middle-class Indianapolis neighborhood, Holiday Park was a modern urban nightmare. Drug dealers and male prostitutes had set up permanent shop, and local residents were afraid to go anywhere near the park. After dark, not even the police felt safe in Holiday Park.

In 1990, a courageous group of neighbors finally said, "Enough." They banded together and asked Indianapolis for permission to take back their park. They proceeded to raise $300,000 in private donations for new equipment, a security guard, and better upkeep. The former drug-infested park now is safe enough for family picnics.