Ladybugs!
Ladybugs successfully released: Thanks to Jenifer, Bud and thank you Chyna!
Ladybugs successfully released: Thanks to Jenifer, Bud and thank you Chyna!
The annual Ladybug release is happening again in the garden this weekend. Invite your friends. Bring the kids.
OPENING STATEMENT
Good morning, and welcome to the Parks and Recreation Committee’s Hearing on the Fiscal 2016 Preliminary Budget and the Fiscal 2015 Preliminary Mayor’s Management Report for the Department of Parks and Recreation. My name is Mark Levine and I am the Chair of the Parks and Recreation Committee.
In line with the budget process mandated by the City Charter that ultimately will lead to the adoption of the Fiscal 2016 budget, today we will hear testimony from the Department of Parks and Recreation on its Expense and Capital Budgets for Fiscal 2016.
New York City’s parks system has improved dramatically in almost every way in recent years–with better upkeep, greater safety, and dazzling new renovations. And the most recent Mayor’s Management Report shows that the upward trend has continued over the past year. The Parks Department accomplished this feat, despite a tight operating budget, thanks to the creativity and hard work of its staff, the efforts of thousands of volunteers, and the increasing generosity of private donors.
But improvements in our parks system have not been felt equally throughout the city. That fact is inseparable from the decades-long decline in what we spend on our park system relative to the size of the City’s total budget. Increased public spending is vital to the well being of our precious green spaces, especially in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods that lack access to the private dollars that have flowed into parks in wealthier areas of our city.
A few statistics illustrate some of the countless ways in which inadequate public funding impacts our parks and the millions of New Yorkers who rely on them:
The Parks Department’s preliminary FY2016 budget does not address any of these pressing needs. In fact, while there is a nominal increase in the department’s budget from $413 million in FY15 to $428 million for FY16, this actually represents a slight drop in the portion of the total city budget we are devoting to our parks, from 0.56% this year to 0.55% next year.
At a time when usage of our parks system is soaring–with over 3.3 million visitors annually to our 35 recreation centers alone–this proposed budget may actually amount to a decrease in funding per user. And on the critical measure of headcount, the 6,936 full-time equivalent positions that would be funded under the proposed FY16 budget would actually represent a drop of 90 employees.
Nor does the department’s preliminary budget include baselining of any of the enhanced funding measures which the City Council put in place last year. This included:
The lack of baselining of any of this funding is particularly puzzling because much of it was used to support the mayor’s excellent Community Parks Initiative. I am hopeful that in its executive budget the administration will find the funds to sustain CPI and all of the other vital initiatives the Council supported last year.
But I hope that the mayor’s executive budget proposal will go further than just restoring last year’s funding. Among the additional funds I hope we will see are:
Lest this all sound like an extravagant shopping list, I’ll point out that every one of these enhancements combined would only push the Parks Department budget from 0.55% to 0.57% of the City’s total budget.
There are increases in the Parks capital budget which I’d like to see as well, including items in relation to two expense items I have just mentioned:
Good Afternoon. My name is Mark Levine, and I am the Chair of the City Council’s Committee on Parks & Recreation. I want to welcome you to our hearing on Proposed Int. No. 154-A, whose lead sponsor is my colleague Council Member Brad Lander. This bill would require the Parks Department (DPR) to provide an annual report to the Mayor and Council on maintenance spending on a park-by-park basis, and would require regular online posting of updates regarding capital projects.
In February the Council passed, and the mayor signed, Local Law 16 in order to answer the first question. This law, which Council Member Lander and I co-sponsored, establishes regular, uniform reporting for conservancies of the amount of private funding they received.
The legislation we are taking up today seeks to answer the second critical question.
The Parks Department has steadily improved the overall level of maintenance of our City’s parks in recent years–a particularly impressive feat in light of the department’s stagnating expense budget.
But anyone who has visited a variety of parks across the five boroughs knows that the quality of conditions varies widely from park to park. There are many possible explanations for this, including variable rates of usage, different types of terrain, and differing histories of capital investment.
Intro. 154-A seeks to shed light on another possible explanation for the variation in park conditions: differing levels of maintenance resources expended by the department.
Specifically this bill would require DPR to submit an annual report to the Council on maintenance work performed at each property under its jurisdiction on or before December 1 of each year. This report would include:
whether each park has permanent or mobile maintenance staff assigned to it,
the weekly average and dollar value of work-hours performed by maintenance staff at each property on a quarterly basis, and
the total weekly average dollar value of specific maintenance services provided at each property.
We understand that the challenge of determining cost allocation in any organization is significant–even well-funded corporations often struggle with this. And we know that the Parks Department is still developing its system for tracking and analyzing expenditures on a per-park basis. So intro 154-A would allow the DPR commissioner, upon 30 days notice to the Mayor and the Council, to amend the data included in the report as its systems evolve. The bill also allows DPR to phase in reporting over the next two years.
Finally, Intro 154-A would give the public additional information on Parks Capital projects, to be posted at least quarterly on the department’s website.
I look forward to our discussion of Proposed Intro 154-A, and to moving this important legislation forward. I’d now like to invite Council Member Lander to present opening remarks on the bill.
Posted by Tyrone Stevens
Bob, Kate, K, Jenifer, Carol and the Gardeners give thanks for the great help given by young people, Ms Finch and Ms. Maddox!
And we had a visitor who was very interested in our dirt pile!
Turning Madness into Flowers
It is my thought that the ugliness of war, of gratuitous violence in all its hideous forms, will cease very soon to appeal to even the most insulated of human beings. It will be seen by all for what it is: a threat to our well-being, to our survival as a species, and to our happiness. The brutal murder of our common mother, while we look on like frightened children, will become an unbearable visceral suffering that we will refuse to bear. We will abandon the way of the saw, the jackhammer and the drill.
Of bombs, too.
As religious philosophies that espouse or excuse violence reveal their true poverty of hope for humankind, there will be a great awakening, already begun, about what is of value in life.
We will turn our madness into flowers as a way of moving completely beyond all previous and current programming of how we must toe the familiar line of submission and fear, following orders given us by miserable souls who, somehow have managed to almost completely control us. We will discover something wonderful: that the world really does not enjoy following psychopaths, those who treat the earth our mother, as if she is wrong, and must be corrected, in as sadistic and domineering a way as that of a drunken husband who kills his wife.
The world – the animals, including us humans – wants to be engaged in something entirely other, seeing, and delighting in, the stark wonder of where we are: This place. This gift. This paradise.
We want to follow joy.
And we shall.
The madness, of course, for each one of us, will have to be sorted out.
Once again the garden Critter Committee is planning another Lady Bug release on Saturday, June 27. Join in. Bring the kids!
NYC PARKS PRESENTS:
Join NYC Parks and the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) for three film screenings at the Columbus Park in June.
To reserve a seat, RSVP to manhattan.acf@parks.nyc.gov This event is FREE and open to the public.
About MOCA: The Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) is a non-profit institution that preserves, presents and explores the diverse history, heritage and culture of people of Chinese descent in the United States through innovative exhibitions, educational initiatives, and public programs. Visit www.mocanyc.org to find out more and check out its calendar of upcoming events!
Columbus Park Pavilion (Bayard, Baxter, & Mulberry Streets)
Friday, June 19 // 8:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
Special Preview of Lucky Chow (2015)
Directed by Bruce Seidel. This preview is co-presented by the Center for Asian American Media.
The Columbus Park Pavilion will be open one hour before the film starts. Glass bottles and alcoholic beverages are strictly prohibited.
Friday, June 26* // 8:30 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon (1985)
Directed by Michael Schultz
* The June 26 screening will be held at the Columbus Park Ball
Field, where chairs are prohibited. Patrons are encouraged to bring
a blanket or towel for seating.
Information can also be found on film screening at the parks website events page listing.
All events are FREE and open to the public. The MOCA CINEMA June 26th film showing will be on the Columbus Park Turf Field—RSVP is not necessary for this date.