Connie Fishman is president of the Hudson River Park Trust, a New York state public benefit corporation created to design, build, operate and maintain Hudson River Park, from Battery Place to 59th Street in Manhattan along the Hudson River waterfront. From 1999 through 2003 Ms. Fishman served as Executive Vice President for the same organization. The Trust is responsible for a five-mile $450 million public open space development that has revitalized the old shipping piers and wharfage properties that were abandoned by the maritime industry in the 1960s and 1970s. The project, which is roughly 40 percent complete, is changing the face of Manhattan’s west side and attracting new commercial and residential development to underutilized industrial land on the fringes of the city’s central business district. The project was designed as the city’s first financially self-sustaining public park and has won numerous design, engineering and planning awards.
Prior to her work at the Trust, she was the Planning and Development Director for two New York City Deputy Mayors (1994-1999) and coordinated multi-agency long-term planning efforts such as the Williamsburg Housing Task Force, Fort Totten Army Base Reuse Plan, Brooklyn Navy Yard Reuse Plan, and Lower Manhattan Tax Incentive Program. As Deputy Director for Housing and Economic Planning at the NYC Department of City Planning (1990-1994), Ms. Fishman coordinated the Citywide Industry Study and Retail Strategy and co-authored the Plan for Lower Manhattan. Ms. Fishman received her MA in Latin American Studies from the University of California at Berkeley (1984) and a BA in Political Science from U.C.L.A (1979).
Best Practice presentation talking point
What models for implementing bodies, strategies and funding are there for us to consider? Help us understand the questions we should be asking as we begin to research and think through the best mechanisms for implementation of a seven-mile waterfront vision. Consider that only a fraction of the seven miles is in public hands and the majority of the seven-miles is owned by real estate developers, the working port and two casinos. Are there specific implementation models and strategies for waterfronts such as Philadelphia’s? How could zoning be used as a tool for implementation?
