I recently visited New York City for the wedding celebration of a close friend of mine. While there, I took advantage and visited my cousin and his family in Manhattan. His sons were on summer vacation and spending most of their time at a local baseball camp. One afternoon my cousin and I walked over to the park where the camp was being held to pick them up, on our way there my cousin referred to it as Con Ed Field. For those reading this blog that are not from the New York area, Con Ed is the power company for New York City. I was under the impression that Con Ed was the primary sponsor of the field and had made a large donation to slap their name on a sign at the park.

What I saw once we reached Con Ed Field left me amazed, it was a natural gas power plant, with a baseball field attached. Con Ed had given up part of its land area to create an athletic facility for the local community. I grew up thinking that little league baseball parks were always a part of a larger park or attached to open fields. In this case the ball field was located in the shadows of smoke stacks and energy production.

When most people think of New York City and using every inch of available land, the immediate thought that comes to mind is skyscrapers. While this is the most common way that land is maximized in New York, many facilities, like baseball fields, need to be built outward. When there isn’t enough land available for outward growth, people will get creative. In this case, Con Ed gave up part of the parking lot so that local children would have a place to play sports.

Making the issue of land availability even more difficult to deal with is the increasing value of land in Manhattan. If a company owns a city block they have almost no incentive to build something for the community and instead choose to maximize profits by building office spaces or housing. Building a park in a city like New York means that one is making a conscious decision to only make a fraction of the money possible or in most circumstances lose money.

So the next time you are in New York City, feel free to take pictures of the iconic skyscrapers like the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, and the Freedom Tower but also make note of any open spaces or parks in the area, as each of these are potentially worth billions of dollars.