Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Parks hiding donation disparities

From the NY Times:

Four years ago, the City Council passed a law to shed light on how much money was flowing into different parks across the city. Advocates were concerned that the parks system was splitting in two: in wealthy areas of the city, gleaming, innovative green spaces, buttressed by private financing sources; elsewhere, ailing parks with far fewer resources at their disposal.

The legislation required the Department of Parks and Recreation of New York City to prepare an annual report that would detail, park by park, the contributions of nonprofits and other private donors.

“We wanted to see just how large the disparity is,” said Geoffrey Croft, the president of NYC Park Advocates, which supported the legislation. The City Council agreed, and after the measure was approved by a vote of 48-0, the new reporting requirements became Local Law 28 of 2008.

Yet the most recent report from the parks department, on the 2010 fiscal year, falls far short of the law’s requirements.

It fails to list the city’s largest parks nonprofit, the Central Park Conservancy, which spent $28 million during that period. Other major parks groups, including the Union Square Partnership, the Madison Square Park Conservancy and the Friends of Washington Square Park, are also missing.

“It doesn’t reflect a real effort to comply with the law,” Alan J. Gerson, a former councilman who sat on the parks committee in 2008, said.

“Whether it’s for schools, or parks or any public place, the public should know where the private money is coming from and what it’s buying. It’s basic good government,” Mr. Gerson, a Manhattan Democrat, said.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

The rich take care of their own...

Anonymous said...


Of course Estelle Cooper ran off with her "FMCP Conservancy's" loot.

Now she can park her crooked fat ass in a jail cell!

Anonymous said...

Just who is in charge of Queens parks anyway?

Anonymous said...

Estelle Cooper's group was Unisphere Inc...the FMCP Conservancy is completely independent of that group.

Anonymous said...

Why just parks? The entire city is splitting in two.

Look how LIC gets a new library and school and the rest of your slubs get played around for decades.

Anonymous said...

Oh really...an independent group?

I'll bet that Cooper had her hands in the FMCP Conservancy's till somehow...by hook or by crook.

That conservancy is an ineffective group anyway..."protecting" an ersatz park.

FMCP IS NO PARK. It's leftover fair grounds.

Forest Hills Park is Queens' real premiere park.

FMCP serves the local 3rd worlders.
Cerveza Corona!

Anonymous said...

Flushing Meadows Corona Park is small potatoes,
and their "conservancy" is a piddling excuse
for a real one.

The Central Park Conservancy has single donors
who can drop 2 million bucks in a flash!

Now, that's a REAL PARK worth protecting.

FMCP is former ash dump!