Hearing on Street Renamings to be Held Friday, February 10

An example of a co-named street in Manhattan.

New York City Council’s Parks & Recreation Committee will be meeting Friday, February 10 at 1:30 pm to review two sets of street renaming bills. The hearing will be held in the 16th Floor Hearing Room at 250 Broadway in Lower Manhattan.

The first proposed bill would co-name 33 thoroughfares and public places, across the city. The Council is seeking to honor a range of individuals who made positive contributions to their neighborhoods, the city and beyond with these street co-namings.  You can find the entire list of proposed co-namings here. 

The second piece of legislation would rename six streets in Queens, to restore them to their historical names:

• 240th Street between 43rd Avenue and Depew Avenue would become Prospect Avenue
• 242nd Street between 43rd Avenue and 44th Avenue would be renamed Hamilton Avenue
• 243rd Street between 44th Avenue and the dead end at Depew Avenue would be renamed Orient Avenue
• 44th Avenue between Douglaston Parkway and 244th Street would become Church Street
• 43rd Avenue between the intersection of Douglaston Parkway at 240th Street
• 243rd Street would be Pine Street
• 42nd Avenue between the Long Island Railroad dead end and 243rd Street would be renamed Poplar Street

Please feel free to join on this Friday at 1:30 pm!

Hearing on Safety in Parks to Be Held Next Monday 1/30

On Monday, January 30th at 10:00 am, the New York City Council’s Parks & Recreation Committee will hold a joint hearing regarding safety issues in our city’s parks.  The hearing will be held jointly with the Committee on Public Safety, and will take place in the 16th Floor Committee Room at 250 Broadway in Lower Manhattan.

Last year, the Parks Committee held an oversight hearing regarding the Parks Enforcement Patrol (PEP) program.  This hearing raised a number of additional questions about crime in parks and the extent to which the NYPD works with PEP officers to deal with criminal activity.  We expect representatives from both the Parks Department and NYPD to testify at this hearing.

As always, public testimony will be welcome at this hearing.  We hope you’ll join us!

Hearing on MillionTreesNYC to Be Held Next Month

On Monday, December 12th, the City Council’s Parks & Recreation Committee will hold an oversight hearing on the Bloomberg administration’s MillionTreesNYC initiative.  The hearing will be held in the 16th Floor Hearing Room at 250 Broadway in Lower Manhattan.

Mayor Bloomberg recently announced the planting of the 500,000th tree, as part of this initiative.  Now that we have reached the halfway point of the Mayor’s goal, the Committee will examine concerns over maintenance of these trees, given that complaints regarding tree-related conditions are among the most frequent calls made to 311.

Have a specific question you’d like us to ask at this hearing?  Post it in the comments section below.

Closures, Cancellations and Reopenings

The following is a message from the Parks Department regarding today’s closures, cancellations and reopenings, following this weekend’s severe weather.  For the most up to date information, please visit http://www.nycgovparks.org/.

Closures and Cancellations

The following facilities are closed through Monday, August 29. 

• All City beaches.
• All Parks outdoor swimming pools. In addition, Lap Swimming and Swim for Life programs are cancelled on Monday, August 29.
• Central Park, Prospect and Flushing Meadows Corona Park Zoos.
• In order to facilitate storm damage cleanup, all roads in Central Park, Manhattan are closed to vehicular traffic until further notice. The park remains open to pedestrians and cyclists.
• The Adventure Course in Alley Pond Park
• Permitted events in some parks may be cancelled due to necessary repair and cleanup work. Please visit our Know Before You Go page for individual event cancellation information.

Reopenings

• Some Parks Recreation Centers will begin to reopen Monday, August 29, although not all facilities may be available. Call your local Recreation Center before attending.
• All Parks marinas have reopened.

Hurricane Irene & Our City’s Parks

A Message from the Department of Parks & Recreation Regarding Hurricane Irene

As Hurricane Irene makes its way up the East Coast, we want to share important information with you regarding the steps that the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation has taken to prepare for the storm.

IMPORTANT PARKS SERVICE INFORMATION REGARDING HURRICANE IRENE

In preparation for Hurricane Irene, the Parks Department will close all beaches at 6 p.m. on Friday, August 26, 2011. Parks recreation centers and outdoor swimming pools will be closed Saturday, August 27, 2011. These facilities are closed until further notice. For more information about the hurricane and ways to be prepared, please visit www.nyc.gov/severeweather.

We urge people to stay out of parks and off sidewalks, in the event of falling trees or branches. To report downed trees or branches, please contact 311.  In case of emergency, please call 911.

*Please note, MTA public transportation will be closed starting Saturday, August 27, at Noon.*

The following facilities are closed as of Saturday, August 27. This information will be updated as it is available:

• All City beaches close at 6 p.m., Friday, August 26.
• All Parks recreation centers
• All City Swimming pools
• All nature centers in parks
• Greenmarkets, citywide all weekend.
• Liberty Island and Ellis Island
• All four WCS Zoos and the NYC Aquarium will be closed Saturday, August 27, and Sunday, August, 28.

All Parks events are cancelled this weekend, including:

• All Urban Park Ranger public and private programs beginning 6 p.m. on Friday, August 26, until further notice.
• The Alley Pond Park Adventure Course
• Public Explorer programs scheduled for Saturday, August 27, and Sunday, August 28. They will not be rescheduled.
• Arthur Ashe Kids Day, Saturday, August 27.
• Mets home games are cancelled on Saturday, August 27, and Sunday, August 28.

• All practice sessions for the U.S. Open, Sunday, August 28.
• Brooklyn Cyclones home games, Sunday, August 28.

• The Afro Punk festival in Brooklyn is cancelled.

 

City Council Restores Funds for Public Pools, Playground Associates and Parks Staff

The City Council adopted the Fiscal Year 2012 budget on Wednesday, which included nearly $8 million to restore cuts to parks that had been proposed by the Mayor in May.  Below is the list of restorations:

• Maintenance of the Full Pool Season ($891,000)
  This funding will keep all City pools open during the last two weeks of the pool season.  The Mayor’s proposed budget reduced the pool season by two weeks.
• Restoration of Pool Closures ($546,000)
  This funding averts the closure of four City pools (Wagner, Howard, Fort Totten and West Brighton) and keeps them open for the full pool season.
• Parks Job Training Participants ($2.9 million)
  This is a partial restoration for the Parks Opportunity Program (POP), which is primarily for public assistance recipients who have reached their five year benefit level.  They are placed in jobs for eleven and a half months at which time they also receive training in basic skills.
• Seasonal Plan Restoration ($2.5 million)
  This funding is for seasonal workers, including seasonal aides, gardeners and PEP officers for beach patrol.
• Playground Associates Initiative ($1 million)
  This funding provides 30 full-time equivalent playground associates to supervise recreation in local parks and playgrounds.

The Department is still planning to go ahead with an increase in fees for recreation centers, tennis courts and athletic fields.  The Parks Committee and the Speaker’s Office are exploring proposals that would seek to mitigate the economic impact of these fee increases, particularly on low- and middle-income families.

NY Daily News: Ballfields at $120 million Randalls Island largely unused, not attracting neighborhood kids

BY DANIEL BEEKMAN
DAILY NEWS WRITER

If you build it, they will come – but not to Randalls Island.

Dozens of new ballfields in the sprawling park beneath the RFK-Triborough Bridge went unused last summer by the kids who need them most, the city parks boss admits.

And with school almost out for summer, advocates are complaining the $120 million revamp of Randalls Island Park in early 2010 created a playground for the rich and took crucial dollars from neighborhood ballfields.

Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe cited the low traffic earlier this year to justify plans for a private sports camp.

“Fields on Randalls Island have gone largely unused during weekday daytime hours in July and August, and thus availability should not be an issue,” he wrote City Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito in January.

The deal called for Florida-based IMG Academies to operate the camp on Randalls Island after donating $200,000 to the Randalls Island Sports Foundation. But plans for the $895-a-week camp fell through in April, with IMG citing low enrollment.

Mark-Viverito (D-East Harlem/Bronx) slammed the pricey park rehab, claiming thousands of trees were cut down to make way for the artificial turf fields.

“Why would you build so many fields and then have a problem in terms of utilization?” she asked. “It was shortsighted and now we’re paying the price.”

“From day one, we were concerned there was no need to build so many” new fields, said Geoffrey Croft of NYC Park Advocates. “Now that has come to fruition. The result is the fields are empty.”

The park boasts fancy golf and tennis centers, but no basketball courts, he added.

During the rehab, the city took heat for a $2.2 million-per-year pay-to-play scheme involving Manhattan private schools. It was struck down in court after East Harlem and Bronx community groups sued.

“The fields were built mostly to accommodate the private schools,” Croft said. And Marina Ortiz, of East Harlem Preservation, called the park “a private playground … designed to bring in revenue.”

There’s a move afoot now to try and spread the word about what’s in the park. Randalls Island fields go unused partly because they are isolated and more people need to be made aware of the space, said Frances Masrota of Manhattan Community Board 11.

A renovated E. 103rd St. pedestrian bridge is set to reopen soon, while the M35 bus runs between the park and E. 125th St. – but few youngsters make the trip.

The Parks Department has assigned a representative to attend Board 11 meetings and share info related to Randalls Island to try to spread the word on what’s there.

The fields are “generally permitted to capacity” in the evenings and on weekends, Parks spokesman Zachary Feder said. The park foundation also offers a free summer program, he noted, and softball leagues.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/06/14/2011-06-14_kids_unaware_or_unwelcome_after_120m_randalls_island_fixup_theres_a_park.html#ixzz1PG07ybD9

Parks & Recreation Committee Holds Hearing on Parks Enforcement Patrol (PEP) Program

Image via Wikipedia

The City Council’s Parks & Recreation Committee held a hearing on Wednesday regarding the Parks Enforcement Patrol (PEP) program.  The hearing focused on the disparities in the allocation of PEP officers among different parks and communities as well as workplace issues faced by the officers.

PEP officers are unarmed peace officers, who enforce the rules of our parks and are empowered to issue summonses for quality of life offenses, as well as disorderly conduct and unlawful possession of weapons.  They also review park facilities for health and safety issues.  There are currently 92 PEP officers to cover over 28,000 acres of parkland, with an additional 83 officers that are contracted by conservancies and other private entities to work in specific parks.  There are often just a few at-large officers on duty at any given time for the entire borough of the Bronx, whereas in a single park in communities of greater means, there might be a dozen.

Chair Viverito and other members of the committee stressed the need for more resources for the PEP program so that these officers can cover more parks, particularly at a time when the City is seeing an increase in crimes committed on parkland.  The Chair also highlighted that the practice of contracting with private entities that are able to purchase increased security from the department while the majority of other parks go unsupervised sets up a two-tiered system in our public parks.

The hearing also focused on the issues that PEP officers face as a workforce. Several officers came to testify about the difficult and dangerous jobs they do, including doing car stops and removing homeless individuals from parks, without the help of the NYPD or the Department of Homeless Services. They asked for greater numbers of PEP officers and more support to help make our parks safer.

In the coming months, the Committee plans to hold another hearing jointly with the Public Safety Committee on crime in parks, which will continue to examine these issues.

Coverage of Wednesday’s hearing:

• NY1: Parks Enforcement Force Stretched Too Thin, Some Say
• NY1 Noticias: Pocos uniformados patrullan vecindarios pobres de la ciudad, según informe
• New York Times: City Council Questions Distribution of Park Officers
• WNYC: Parks’ Safety Resources Aren’t Distributed Equally, Council Members Say
• DNA Info: Uptown Parks Short on Security Officers, Advocates Say
• Epoch Times: NYC Council Hearing Reveals Park Patrol Disparity
• Metro: Crime: Hidden dangers lurk in New York’s parks
• Daily News: City Council to address usage of Parks Department officers

Parks & Recreation Committee to Hold Oversight Hearing on the Parks Enforcement Patrol (PEP) Program

**For Immediate Release**
Contact: Joe Taranto, 917-535-5531 or jtaranto@council.nyc.gov

 

On Wednesday, April 27th at 10:00 a.m. the New York City Council’s Parks & Recreation Committee, chaired by Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito, will hold an oversight hearing on the Parks Enforcement Patrol (PEP) Program at 250 Broadway in Lower Manhattan. The hearing will focus on disparities and inequities in the allocation of PEP officers by neighborhood and borough, as well as the workforce issues faced by these officers. PEP officers are unarmed peace officers, who enforce the rules of our parks and are empowered to issue summonses for quality of life offenses, as well as disorderly conduct and unlawful possession of weapons. They also review park facilities for health and safety issues.

At the hearing, Council Members will question the Parks Department on the numbers of PEP officers in our city and how those resources are distributed among boroughs and neighborhoods. In recent years, conservancies and other private entities have engaged in contracts with the Parks Department to place PEP officers in their parks, creating significant disparities among the City’s neighborhoods. For example, according to reports, more than half of the PEP officers patrol Manhattan parks whereas there are only eight PEP officers for the entire borough of the Bronx, which has over 6,000 acres of parkland.

Council Members will also question the Department on its practice of assigning job training participants (JTPs) as PEP officers to help cope with the shortage of PEP officers. JTPs have very little formal training and are not certified in the security field, yet they are reportedly asked to accompany PEP officers in parks, or in some cases, to patrol parks alone.

“PEP officers play a critical role in keeping our parks safe and serve as deterrents for more serious crimes,” said Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito, Chair of the Parks & Recreation Committee. “We need to ensure that the benefits of having PEP officers in parks extend beyond the largest and wealthiest parks in our city and that this workforce is being given the resources it needs in order to keep the public safe.”

Other questions surrounding the treatment of the PEP workforce will also be addressed at the hearing, including their training, resources and responsibilities. The Committee expects to hear testimony from Joe Puleo, President of Local 983, which represents the PEP officers, and from officers themselves, on the working conditions they experience, which according to the union, include being asked to perform car stops and remove homeless individuals from parks without support from the Police Department of the Department of Homeless Services.

Council Members Rally to Save GreenThumb

Parks & Recreation Committee Chair Melissa Mark-Viverito joined Council Members Tish James and Jimmy Van Bramer, as well as members of the NYC Community Garden Coalition, in rallying to save funding for GreenThumb, a Parks Department program that provides support and technical assistance to our city’s community gardeners. Currently, the program’s funding is in danger as its entire budget comes from federal Community Development Block Grants (CDBGs), for which the Congress and President Obama have proposed serious cuts.

Attendees at the rally called for the restoration of CDBG funds at the federal level. Chair Viverito has also called on Parks to come up with a contingency plan, in case this funding does end up getting cut. Parks has responded that they will work to harness public and private dollars to keep Green Thumb alive. The Committee will be monitoring this situation as we approach the Executive Budget hearings this May.