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The measures have been largely successful. For example, in Detroit some 119 community groups, businesses,
churches, and block clubs have stepped up to adopt parks (as of Spring 2013) and a handful, such as the Friends
of Palmer Park, are starting some programming (yoga and t’ai chi classes on weekends and a new baseball league
for children). Similarly, in Baltimore some 700 vacant city-owned lots have been adopted for communal use
through the Cities of Service stepUP program. Typically an adopter will take four lots, usually adjoining, but the
largest has been 44 lots. In a few cases, lots have been taken on for five years.
Box 4.1: The Cities of Service initiative
Founded in New York City in 2009 by 17 mayors from across the nation, the bipartisan Cities of Service
coalition and its member cities was a response to the 2009 Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act’s call to
action by finding new and innovative ways to harness the power of volunteers. Today, the Cities of Service
coalition includes over 100 mayors. Efforts must focus on “impact volunteering,” volunteer strategies that
target community needs, use best practices, and set clear outcomes and measures to gauge progress. The
aim is very much to find areas that supplement activities done by paid staff. Nationally, a Cities of Service
secretariat is seeking to network these initiatives, to expand the network (membership of which is free) and
to ensure that the voice of cities is heard in federal legislative, policy, and program discussions related to
service. In early 2010, the Rockefeller Foundation funded the first ten Cities of Service grants, and in mid-
2010 Rockefeller Foundation and Bloomberg Philanthropies jointly funded the second round.
Among the key factors behind the success of schemes are:
• A chief services officer (CSO), backed by mayoral support, who liaises between key departments. In
Baltimore, this has meant that the CSO liaises with city housing staff to ensure good online maps of
available vacant lots, and with the Public Works Department to ensure they provide access to cheap city
water for the adopted lots.
• Mayoral support. Cities of Service began in so-called “strong-mayor” cities, which Baltimore and Detroit
are. Similarly, in Detroit up-take of Adopt-a-Park grew after Mayor Dave Bing began actively promoting it
in 2010.
• Support from non-profit intermediaries. For example, Baltimore Green Space (BGS) helps the city
council vet prospective adoptees of vacant city lots and ensures that adopters get adequate city support.
BGS, as a land trust, can also own (and get insurance for) land on behalf of communities, and the city will
only sell lots to land trusts. In Detroit, the Detroit Parks Coalition (DPC) works to ensure that park support
groups share resources and ideas and, occasionally, meet with the city department that oversees parks. DPC
is in the process of preparing a toolkit for people who are looking to start a friends group around their park.
• Availability of equipment. Detroit has several non-profits that have equipment, including Greening
of Detroit (an urban agriculture organization that loans tools to groups that need them), Motor City
Blightbusters (a non-profit with a focus on environmental improvements and demolition of vacant
homes), and the Mower Gang (a group of volunteers who come in and use weed-whackers and rider
mowers to maintain city parks). In Baltimore, the Station North area of now has a Tool Library 108 and a
Community ToolBank, which exists specifically to provide tools to non-profit members across the metro
area (see Box 4.2).
108
See http://www.newdream.org/blog/starting-a-tool-library-inspiration-and-insights-from-station-north.
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