The following are posts from New Yorkers for Parks on Parks budget information:
Help Secure a Better Parks Budget
TAKE ACTION RIGHT NOW!
· Call City Hall and your local Council Member and talk to their office about how important a role your local park plays in community, and what a difference more full-time workers would make.
· Make it clear that the $27 million shouldn’t just be added to the budget on a one-time basis; it should be baselined – that is, made a permanent fixture in the annual budget – so that the new workers and PEP officers truly are full-time, long-term staff additions.
The mayor and council have talked about the importance of community building and of lifting neighborhoods across the city – now’s the time to tell them that adding more funding for parks would do just that.
Commissioner Silver Makes First Council Appearance
“Parks equity is important to Mayor de Blasio, and it is important to me,” he said. “We will work to address these concerns, ensuring that there is equitable distribution of resources throughout our park system.”
“We don’t know the how at this point,” he added after the hearing when asked by reporters about addressing equity issues. “Park equity is the goal, and there are many ways to go in that direction.”
The Parks Department, he said, is undertaking a comprehensive assessment of its capital construction process, which Silver said “currently takes too long.”
Addressing Equity Issues Through a Better Capital Process
1 -“the Parks Department should have a well-funded, flexible capital budget that it can use to prioritize parks and neighborhoods with the greatest needs. … – the system simply isn’t designed to reach the areas that need the most help.
2-Second, there are several internal steps Parks can take to make the capital process better. A few examples …: a faster and more clearly defined design process; a better system for selecting and working with vendors; more collaboration with other City agencies; and through all these changes, ways of fostering a greater sense of accountability within the capital division at Parks.
New Yorkers for Parks City Council Testimony:
New York City Council Committees on Finance
Hearing on the FY15 Final Budget
June 6, 2014
Submitted testimony of New Yorkers for Parks