Doug Blonsky is an old hand at starting over. Back in 1980, when he became president of the Central Park Conservancy, the park was in shambles, and people avoided setting foot on its soil for fear of being mugged. “Central Park was in its worst condition,” he said, “and so was the city. When the park was a wreck, people didn’t want to bring their families.” Two decades’ worth of fund raising and redevelopment later, the park teems with children and counts as the city’s second most popular tourist attraction, outranked only by Times Square.

When Mr. Blonsky received a call last month asking for help in the rebuilding of New Orleans’s City Park, which was devastated by Hurricane Katrina, he responded with utmost speed. While he’d never been to City Park – or the city of New Orleans, for that matter – Mr. Blonsky said he could relate to the park managers’ plight. “I absolutely know what they’re going through,” he said.

City Park is located in the center of New Orleans. It’s not much to speak of now, but in its former incarnation it boasted a carousel, a fairy-tale land for children, several golf courses, an art museum, and a botanical garden. After the hurricane hit, 90% of the park was under water, every piece of equipment the park has was destroyed, the botanical garden was finished, and all but 13 of 260 employees had lost their jobs.

Immediately after Katrina struck, the park’s director of development, John Hopper, called a handful of parks asking for help, and he followed up with a letter describing the park’s sorry state. The letter was recently distributed to 400 parks across the nation. According to the letter’s sender, Mr. Blonsky was the first to respond.

Mr. Blonsky raised $27,000 for the park at a silent auction put on by Saks Fifth Avenue and the Central Park Alliance; committed to donating all proceeds from next Saturday’s “Member for a Day” event; offered to send down a dozen chainsaws worth about $500 apiece, and offered to give jobs to the newly unemployed park workers. None of the newly unemployed New Orleanians have taken up Mr. Blonsky on his offer, as most of them have houses that were damaged and need to stick around to deal with insurance adjusters. “The idea for them to pick up and move to a different city without a support base would prove daunting,” Mr. Hopper said.

The city of New Orleans is taking care of the removal of big felled trees, but volunteers will use the chainsaws that Mr. Blonsky is donating to remove the trees from the park’s delicate fairy tale area. “The people the city sends are a bunch of big, strapping guys, but they don’t really care about Mother Goose.” Mr. Hopper said.

On the nightmare-to-beautiful spectrum, Mr. Hopper said the park falls somewhere in the middle. The grass is dead, nothing is open, and hundreds of trees are down, but the ducks are still quacking and some patches of green are starting to appear.

Central Park has had its own share of injury, but none as significant as those of City Park. In 1992, a northeaster wiped out hundreds of Central Park’s trees.

“It makes you realize urban parks are not natural environments,” Mr. Blonsky said. Central Park is entirely manmade; all the soil was brought in and spread out in a thin layer. It doesn’t help matters that 25 million people trample through the park every year.

As he’s learned more about City Park, Mr. Blonsky said he’s come to see it as the Central Park of New Orleans. At 1,300 acres, it’s larger than Central Park, which takes up 843 acres. Both parks rely on independent funds (85% of Central Park’s operating costs comes from donations; virtually all of City Park’s $10.6 million of annual revenue comes from its concession areas and golf courses). And both sit in the heart of cities that have suffered considerably.

After the September 11, 2001 attacks, Central Park took on the role of a sanctuary for New Yorkers looking for a place of calm. Mr. Blonsky said the park filled with fathers and children, rather than the mothers and babysitters who usually came to the park.

Right now, the federal funds allotted to the rebuilding of New Orleans mainly call for housing and roads, and Mr. Hopper said it will be a long time before the $50 million the park estimates it needs to repair itself will come through.

City Park has raised about $250,000 in post-Katrina relief. Until the people of New Orleans find homes, it’s unlikely that FEMA will focus on rebuilding the park. “When people are trying to make sure people are safe in their shelters, they’re not thinking about a rose garden,” Mr. Hopper said. The park has submitted a proposal to FEMA calling for a temporary trailer park to house thousands of displaced citizens. If the proposal is accepted, the park will collect rent for the land it provides.

It is unlikely City Park will be able to put itself back together anytime soon, but Mr. Blonsky remains hopeful.

Donations to City Park can be sent to johnhopperkatrina@yahoo.com. Or call 504-259-1509.

lmechling@nysun.com