The American Planning Association (APA), Washington, D.C., has presented the first round of grants for a city parks initiative, with $35,000 going to each of four cities. The organization formed The City Parks Forum last year for mayors of mid-sized cities, their parks advisors and community parks leaders in an effort to determine how parks are critical to the quality of life in urban communities and to seek ways to increase public-private partnerships in parks development.

"APA is pleased that city officials have expressed such interest in getting involved in urban park development and in working with planners to bring about change," says APA Executive Director Frank So.

The grants are designed to help them get started. "Addressing long-term urban park concerns requires elected officials and business leaders to sit down and tackle a broad range of issues, from capital programming and urban design to public transit, urban forestry and local zoning," says Mary Eysenbach, director of the forum, which is based in APA's Chicago offices.

Funding for the three-year grant program comes from the Wallace-Reader's Digest Funds and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, both based in New York. The first round of grants will be used to:

* spur community revitalization through park development in Minneapolis;

* transform a vacant lot into a neighborhood park and garden in New Orleans;

* create a park stewardship plan for a brownfields redevelopment project in Pittsburgh; and

* create a riverfront park on an old wharf site in Louisville.