Blog Middlebury

NYC’s Parks Commissioner, Midd Alum, Stepping Down

The New York Times reports that Adrian Benepe is ending his highly successful time as the city’s Parks Commissioner. Using extreme amounts of self-restraint to avoid referencing Leslie Knope (darn it, it slipped out) here is Benepe’s story:

NYT “Mr. Benepe was 16 when he first worked for the Department of Parks and Recreation as a seasonal employee while still in high school. That was in summer 1973, “when things were at a very low ebb,” he said, referring to the poor condition of the city’s parks.

‘It was a very dispiriting introduction,’ he continued.

Still, several years later, fresh out of Middlebury College, he took a job as an urban park ranger in Central Park, on the eve of the gradual but complete transformation of the city’s flagship park. Over the next three decades, with some minor interruptions, Mr. Benepe climbed the ranks of the department, heading up communications, natural resources, art and antiquities and eventually becoming the Manhattan borough commissioner.”

Anybody that is a friend of the High Line, is a friend of mine. Nice work Adrian Benepe, and best of luck at The Trust For Public Land.