Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy Inc.

The goal of the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy is to lead the Greenway's contemporary, urban park into its future as a vibrant, safe, welcoming, and innovative civic open space, strengthening its physical benefits and fostering a community in Boston. The Conservancy aims to connect the people and the city with beauty, fun, and inspiration. The Greenway Conservancy delivers a successful public park through four distinct areas: stewardship, activation, partnership, and innovation. Stewardship involves maintenance of the park - its hardscapes, furnishings, and its horticulture. Activation means offerings through programming and events that make the Greenway a vibrant place to visit. Partnership is collaborating with our surrounding communities. Innovation leads to efficiency and creativity in delivering the services, programs, events, and beauty of the Greenway. Stewardship. The Conservancy has a goal of delivering a consistently clean, highly functional and lush urban park at a level that makes both locals and visitors take notice. Activation. When visitors arrive on the Greenway, they should discover events and programs that entice a diverse audience, and provide entertainment, engagement and wonder. Partnership. The Greenway was built on public/private partnership and we commit to collaborating with city and state officials, surrounding neighborhood and business leaders, and visitors and locals, to create a thriving urban district. This commitment directly affects Boston's economy. With a community of partners, the Greenway stimulates tourism and provides a park that attracts both residential and commercial dwellers into the city. Innovation. We focus on delivering the beautiful, active, collaborative Greenway using the most innovative methods and ideas. Innovation creates efficiencies in park maintenance and management, and inspires programs and public art.

The Greenway horticultural staff uses sustainable, organic methods to manage the park. This means that a child can play on the Greenway's lush grass without contacting pesticides or chemicals. Greenway horticulture staff brew a compost tea (nutritionally rich, organic plant food) to maintain stunning and healthy gardens in the parks. The Greenway is the only park in New England managed solely with organic methods. Beyond award-winning organic care, the Conservancy has committed to horticultural upgrades that provide four seasons of beauty in the park. The Conservancy brings the highest level of maintenance care for the six fountains, complex lighting systems, and other features, assuring a safe, beautiful park. At five years old, the Conservancy is already planning capital maintenance of those items in the park showing excessive wear. We activate the Greenway with events and ongoing offerings. There are 300 free events annually, from fitness classes to farmers markets to concerts. We installed one of the largest free Wi-Fi networks in the Commonwealth, and we add new vendors annually to our Mobile Eats (food vendor) program. We make the park a world-class destination by offering a variety of public art, in conjunction with emerging and established artists, and partners such as the Institute for Contemporary Art, along the Greenway. In the next few years, we will showcase pioneering art projects that are larger in scope, to complement placemaking activities. Our signature Greenway Carousel opened to delighted visitors in fall 2013, and we will continue to make improvements to the parks that attract local and international visitors. Every year, we partner with a variety of businesses, neighbors, public and non-profit organizations for 300 free events like FIGMENT interactive art festival, Summer on the Waterfront, the farmers' and artisan markets, and concerts on the Greenway. As a young park in the heart of Boston, we take a long view for all of our decision-making. We consider the Greenway as a lunch spot, an urban garden, a neighborhood hub, an international art venue, and an economic engine for the city.

The Conservancy has a strong track record of leadership; our creative approach to activation—from the Greenway Carousel and the Mobile Eats program to free Wi-Fi—has made the Greenway a premiere destination. Moreover, we have deep knowledge of the site, proven experience in managing complex interagency interactions, and strong relationships with important stakeholders. Through programs, events, art, and collaboration, the Conservancy has solid examples of innovation. The Greenway Carousel at the Tiffany & Co Foundation Grove opened in 2013 to raves from local and national press and families; the Carousel is the most accessible in New England. We installed one of the largest free Wi-Fi networks in the Commonwealth. Our programming has tripled in four years and there are now 300 free annual events, from partners such as the FIGMENT (participatory art festival), Boston Public Market Association (farmers market), Berklee College (concert series), Sustainable Business Network (Boston Local Food Fest), and more. Our Mobile Eats Program has been celebrated in a Boston Globe editorial and in national publications like Travel + Leisure. Our strategy of temporary exhibitions of contemporary public art, including the award-winning Greenway Wall murals produced in partnership with the Institute of Contemporary Art, have sparked a citywide dialogue. We were one of BostInno's five Arts & Entertainment ""50 on Fire"" winners in 2013. The Conservancy is a highly successful public-private partnership. Since inception, we have raised a dollar and a half in philanthropy to supplement every dollar of public funding, and our business-minded approach to park amenities has grown the Conservancy's earned income over 500% in five years. With full responsibility for all operations, programming, and improvements in the park, we can deliver for our donors: the Greenway Carousel, which was 95% privately funded, was delivered on-time, on-budget, and exceeded public and donor expectations; a lead gift from the prestigious, brand-focused Tiffany & Co. Foundation was possible because they were entirely convinced that we would deliver a superior product. The Conservancy is the natural convener to bring together the BRA, MassDOT, community, political, business, and other stakeholders, with whom our relations are stronger than ever. As the sole entity responsible for Greenway operations and improvement, the Conservancy has deep knowledge of the park. From design and engineering studies (e.g., a schematic design for a passive landscape treatment), we have significant technical understanding- structural capacity of the tunnel infrastructure, ramp constraints, subsurface conditions, utilities, soil specs, etc. Years of conversations with neighbors provide a baseline understand of community desires.

We have delivered a stunning, active, well-maintained urban park for the past five years. Beyond this ideal, near term objectives include facility upgrades and repairs, diversification of planted areas of the park, events and programs that have wide appeal and engage partners, public art that widens Boston's cultural appeal, and new streams of revenue to create a financially sustainable organization. The Conservancy, at year five, is still working towards financial stability. We have no capital maintenance fund to cover the complexity of maintenance costs, which will rise as the parks age. The Conservancy is focused on growing philanthropy and earned revenue to cover the anticipated escalation in costs. Creating a safe, kind, welcoming space for all visitors is a goal that can be elevated by the presence of Greenway Park Rangers, which is another short-term objective. As a downtown, urban park, our maintenance and horticulture staff are deep into larger societal issues of homelessness and drug/alcohol use in the parks, without the benefit of training in these areas. We are eager to fund full time Rangers. The Conservancy is also focused on scaling our popular volunteer program. At 3,000 volunteer hours in 2013, we are now at a point when we need to focus on scaling both corporate and residential volunteer opportunities to handle more and more diverse audiences.