Conservancy will help run Flushing Meadows-Corona Park

A newly formed conservancy will lead the effort to maintain the iconic park in Queens that is home to Citi Field, the National Tennis Center, the Unisphere and, at two points in history, the World's Fair, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday.

The Flushing Meadows-Corona Park Alliance will operate similarly to, but not exactly like, the Central Park Conservancy, the nonprofit that manages the city's most famous green space. The establishment of the Queens group represents a move by the administration and the City Council to help outerborough parks be as well cared-for as Manhattan parks.

"This is a major park, and a major park deserves a major conservancy," de Blasio said at a news conference outside of the Queens Museum, also part of the 900-acre Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. "The creation of this conservancy, the fact that the other historic conservancies are joining to help us reach parks that haven't had as much, the fact that our community parks initiative is investing so much -- all of this will lead to a more fair city."

The mayor said the city is spending $20 million on eight capital-improvement projects at the park.

The independent alliance's first dose of funding comes from the U.S. Tennis Association, which will give $350,000 during the first three years and $200,000 over the following 20 years.

Many have credited the upkeep of Central Park to its conservancy, which, with the help of big-name donors, provides 75 percent of the park's $65 million annual operating budget. The public-private partnership in Queens will work a little differently and receive input from a so-called community advisory board of borough representatives.

We understood that we weren't going to be Central Park, nor do we want to be Central Park," City Council member Julissa Ferreras-Copeland (D-Queens) said. "It really is taking the best practices of a lot of other conservancies -- large ones, small ones -- and looking at how we can be most successful."