Protecting and improving the community for the people who live and work here

Fordham University: By: Bernadette Corbett May 13, 2016

CHAPTER 2:
The History of the NYC Parks Department
“Parks are about so much more than our aesthetics and beauty, as important as that is.
Parks are about healthy neighborhoods? they’re intimately tied to the health of their neighborhoods? they promote community building, social capital, and even in ways we’re only just beginning to understand, our physical health.” (Shakarian)

Urban parks can provide social benefits to neighborhoods because they are public spaces where people from different cultures and backgrounds can convene. In fact, urban parks are supposed to be symbols of democracy within New York City. Experts believe urban parks theoretically represent fairness and civic virtues within society. In other words, urban parks provide society with public places where the rich and the poor can “meet as equals” (Penalosa).
However, these symbols of democracy become warped when private fundraising is the main source of maintenance and upkeep. When urban parks are maintained through private funds, they only cater to the needs of the elite few. Therefore, certain groups no longer feel welcomed in these public spaces. “Some of the most glaring inequities are becoming manifest in the way our public spaces are designed, maintained, and regulated” (65 Ulam). Thus, our society becomes segregated. Many academics and urban planners have opinions on how our society becomes segregated through urban parks, and their theories are analyzed within this chapter.

“we are facing a different kind of threat to public space – not one of disuse, but of patterns of design and management that exclude some people and reduce social and cultural diversity. In some cases this exclusion is the result of a deliberate program to reduce the number of undesirables, and in others, it is a by­product of privatization, commercialization, historic preservation, and specific strategies of design and planning.
Nonetheless, theses practices can reduce the vitality and vibrancy of the space or reorganize it in such a way that only one kind of person – often a tourist or a middle­class visitor – feels welcomed.” (Low 1)

From Green Map System:

From Mother Jones MAY 24, 2019

“Chlorpyrifos has been linked to brain damage in kids.”

“In March 2017, at the dawn of the Trump administration, then-Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt was forced by a court order to decide whether to honor his agency’s own plan to ban a pesticide called chlorpyrifos. Made by DowDupont, chlorpyrifos is a blockbuster insecticide used on a variety of crops, from corn and soybeans to grapes and tree nuts. The EPA’s own scientists had deemed the chemical a danger to kids’ brain development at very low exposure levels. Even so, Pruitt decided to keep the chemical on the market.

Since then, the fight over chlorpyrifos has moved to Congress. A House bill that would ban the chemical, introduced in January, drew 107 sponsors. The money-in-politics watchdog Maplight recently released data on DowDupont’s campaign contributions since Pruitt’s decision. Turns out, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission, among the the 330 House members who chose not to sponsor the bill to ban the insecticide, 118 had raked in a total of $379,651 from Dow since 2017. Of the bill’s 107 sponsors, just 10 had received money from the company, for a total of $14,000…”

“Dear Play Fair Coalition Members,

Thank you to those of you who joined us at City Hall for the final Council Parks Committee Budget Hearing, and today for the final City Council Committee on Finance Hearing on the Executive Budget!

We are entering the most critical phase of the Play Fair Campaign, as we approach the end of the budget cycle between the Mayor’s Office and the City Council. As you may know, there is currently no City Council Parks Committee Chair, so we need everyone to champion the Play Fair campaign now that we are in the home stretch.

Here’s what you can do now to help Play Fair:

1.The City Council Committee on Finance is accepting public testimony about the FY20 City Budget until 5pm on Thursday, May 30^th submit a statement in support of adding $100M to the Parks Budget, we would encourage you to do so before the deadline. Testimony can be submitted to financetestimony@council.nyc.gov. You can read the testimony NY4P delivered at today’s final City Council Finance Committee hearing on our website

2. Here is the link to NY4Parks petition to the Mayor and City Council: Now is the time to boost the message of Play Fair as much as possible –

Spread the word to boost the number of signatures to the letter. Each letter gets sent to the signee’s Council Member, and all go to the Mayor. The link to our petition is here

3. Call Council Member Chin’s office and urge them to support Play Fair in the budget! to find office phone numbers.

Speaker Corey Johnson mentioned parks in his tweet about today’s final Executive Budget hearing. If you use Twitter, please retweet his tweet using #PlayFair and tag us @NY4P. Please thank him and tell him to #PlayFair for Parks. The Speaker’s tweet can be seen here

This week, NY4Parks delivered almost 40 letters to City Hall from members of the Play Fair Coalition – thank you to the organizations who provided a letter for us to send! We have already received responses from the Mayor’s staff, so the good news is they are listening.

There were also two great op-eds that ran this week, one by NY4P’s very own Lynn Kelly, and one by Eli Dvorkin at the Center for an Urban Future (CUF). Please read and share widely!”

Opinion: Mr. Mayor, it’s Time to Play Fair for Parks (City Limits, Opinion, May 22, 2019)

Opinion: City&State: “New York City parks need more money, here’s how to raise it“

The weekend of May 31-June 2, an artist, Anina Gerchick, will be installing a her Birdlink bird sanctuary/sculpture at the north end of SDR Park at Houston Street http://birdlink.world/public-installations/ 

Bob Humber will be watering the installation every day.

These are draft – not confirmed or verified yet but similar to presentation by MTA at CB3 Transportation Meeting earlier this year.

New York Times:

“The city’s construction boom is digging up burrows, forcing more rats out into the open, scientists and pest control experts say.”

“Milder winters — the result of climate change — make it easier for rats to survive and reproduce. And New York’s growing population and thriving tourism has brought more trash for rats to feed on.”

Other Cities Responses:

Chicago: has more than doubled its work crews dedicated to rats, who set out poison and fill in burrows in parks, alleys and backyards. It also passed ordinances requiring developers and contractors to have a rat-control plan before demolishing buildings or breaking ground on new projects.

Washington: is testing a rat-sterilization program tried elsewhere that uses liquid contraceptives as bait.

Seattle: planning to train neighborhood property owners and managers on how to stem infestations. .. management of rats, not elimination of them, is their practical goal

“A major contributing factor is how the city collects trash: bags are left outside on the curb for hours before pick up the next morning.”

“NYC initiated a $32 million assault on rats in 2017, which included increased litter basket pickups, the deployment of solar-powered, trash compacting bins and rat-resistant steel cans. The city has also used dry ice to smother rats where they live.”

Dry ice is a better rat killer as it doesn’t poison the environment which can and does kill hawks and other raptors.

City Parks Foundation is offering free senior fitness programs this spring and summer including programming on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Sara D. Roosevelt Park at Houston and Forsyth Streets. There will be fitness walking at 10am and yoga at 11am.

The program started in April but lasts through June 14.

More information regarding the program and how to register can be found: https://cityparksfoundation.org/SENIORS-FITNESS/ or by calling 718-760-6999

The FREE DOT bike helmet fitting event has been rescheduled to Sunday, July 21^st from 12:00pm-3:30pm. The location remains the same: SDR Park, inside “The Pit”, on Broom St. between Christie & Forsyth Streets.

Sunday July 21^st 12:00pm-3:30pm

Fordham University Bernadette Corbett – Urban Parks

“Urban parks provide environmentalbenefits to their neighborhoods. Namely, trees within urban parks provide many environmental benefits to the city. Trees help reduce air pollution, treat polluted water, and provide cooling effects to the city. These environmental benefits also help reduce a city’s overall costs. “The U.S. Forest Service calculated that over a 50­year lifetime one tree generates $31,250 worth of oxygen, provides $62,000 worth of air pollution control, recycles $37,500 worth of water, and controls $31,250 worth of soil erosion” (Sherer). Thus, urban parks are a smart investment for city government and taxpayers.

In 1994, trees in New York City removed approximately 1,800 metric tons of air pollution. Trees can block ozone, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide from reaching the earth. The roots and soil of trees are natural filters for water, and can effortlessly treat polluted particulate matter in water. Trees can also absorb nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium from the soil, chemicals that otherwise would pollute waterways. Urban parks also help treat stormwater and help control stormwater runoff. Urban parks are actually less expensive and more effective at controlling stormwater runoff than concrete sewers. Instead of letting the water immediately run­off into the sewer systems such as concrete and pavements does, parks absorb the water into the ground. This lessens the amount of water crashing into the draining system. According to the F, “By incorporating trees into a city’s infrastructure, managers can build a smaller, less expensive stormwater management system” (Sherer). A conservation organization called American Forests predicts that trees within urban areas save cities $400 billion in stormwater retention facilities. More trees also make summer months more bearable for city residents. The vast amount of glass and concrete within New York City traps all of the suns rays, turning the city into an oven in the summer months. “The evaporation from a single tree can produce the cooling effect of ten room­size air conditioners operating 24 hours a day” (Sherer). Thus, trees stimulate a cooling effect within cities which can make the city much more livable during hotter months.”