Justin Davidson

When the project ran into political headwinds, state and local elected officials helped shield Diller from criticism and smoothed the path of the project to ensure its completion.

Justin Davidson sums it up succinctly in an article in New York Magazine, concluding that the Little Island was, quote, "...a project born of one rich man's whim, nurtured by a few officials, and forced through a public process designed to bless it, not judge it." Just to put the Little Island's cost into perspective, a typical urban signature park, for example, parks built on decks over parking or on waterfronts, things like Millennium Park in Chicago, for example, cost between $5 and $20 million per acre, and for those kinds of parks, closer to $20, as compared to the Little Island, which cost an eye-watering $108 million per acre.

At this point, a reasonable person might ask, is this the best way to spend money on New York City parks, or are there other places in the city that could have used a share of those funds to improve existing parks? Another critic, Henry Graybar at Slate, summed up the effects of not just this one project, but the trend towards icon-funded civic monuments.

He says, quote, The corrosive long-term consequence is that private money flows in ever-larger amounts to flagship parks while support for taxes ebbs, inequalities grow between public spaces in rich and poor neighborhoods, and government is made the caretaker of last resort.