The Changing Standard of National Significance: How the New Environmentalism of the 1960s Redefined National Significance and Led to the Creation of Gateway National Recreation Area, the First Urban National Park

Kelleher, Michael

In the period prior to World War II, Americans interested in the condition of the natural world were considered to be conservationists or preservationists. In the post-war period, conservation gave way to a larger concept of environmentalism, which went beyond the conservationists more narrow concern with resources such as timber, water, and fuel, and the scenic qualities of mountains and forests. Modern environmentalists are concerned with a wider variety of quality of life issues which have an impact on the health of the earth. Many different issues came under the new environmentalism of the 1960s and 1970s. Among the more well known were clean air and water, the disposal of toxic and nuclear waste, the use of pesticides, and the protection of endangered species. Two of the less well know issues were defined by the slogans "the race for open space" and "parks to the people." The race for open space and parks to the people shared a concern for the shortage of parks and recreational opportunities in urban areas, and both saw government as a solution to this problem. In addition, both had a particular concern for poor urban residents who lacked the means to travel to the many parks and natural areas which existed beyond the nation's cities and suburbs. It was only natural for these two concerns to merge, as their advocates had similar goals and were often the same activists and sympathetic government officials who shared a belief in the new environmentalism of the era. The two movements converged in the New York metropolitan region, where the concept of a race for open space first emerged, and the efforts to preserve open space and bring parks to the people had their most visible success when the Federal government created the nation's first urban national park, Gateway National Recreation Area, in New York City and suburban New Jersey.