This paper tries to look at how Solo Municipality started to play a significant role in heritage conservation and management in 2005. Mayor Joko Widodo led all his staff to plan and carry out some priority programmes: the restoration and rehabilitation of historic public space, Banjarsari and Balekambang. Both parks suffered from complex problems, including street vendors in urban heritage areas, obsolescence and dilapidating historic structures, as well as a lack of conservation funds. Through a firm political commitment concerning historic landmarks, intensive communication, multi-sector collaborative management, the local authority was successful in restoring the heritage parks as the green public space of the city. This paper also tries to look at why the local authority had not yet been able to resolve a problem suffered by another urban historic park. It concludes by addressing several lessons learnt from the case studies.