David G. Greenfield, a city councilman from Brooklyn, is passionate about parks, having allocated $12.9 million to green spaces in his district since taking office in 2010. “Parks are a great equalizer,” he said. “Whether you’re rich, poor, young, old, you use parks. There really is no better expenditure of government funds than parks.”
But so far, none of the projects he has financed — including rehabilitated handball courts at Colonel David Marcus Playground and a bathroom renovation in Gravesend Park — has been completed. His frustration over the delays is shared by other council members and parks advocates, who say that capital projects in the park system take far too long.
With many small- to medium-size projects financed by council members and borough presidents, the delays are not merely frustrating for park users. They also threaten the well-primed spigot of money that flows from lawmakers’ discretionary funds into neighborhood parks. Often, elected officials miss out on the political payoff of their contributions: a ribbon-cutting with beaming constituents.
“We’ve started calling these ‘legacy projects,’ because it’s a legacy you’ll leave for your successor,” said Mr. Greenfield, whose district includes Borough Park, Bensonhurst and Midwood. “In the outer boroughs, we have council members who refuse to fund parks because they know that the likelihood that the project will be completed while they are in office is not very high.”
4 comments:
What's the cost of the bathroom renovation? Lat year, a bathroom was built in Kissena Corridor Park costing taxpayers $1 million!
at least in that bklyn district the politicians seem to be trying to do something with there parks here in Astoria our great political leaders Michael Gianaris and Aravella Simotas lobby in albany to take parkland from our citizens and turn it over to private enterprise and the dead (see St Michaels cemetery aug 2013 on this site) with nothing in return for the community i guess it must have something to do with the hundreds of thousands of dollars st mikes has donated($60,000 for 2013) over the years to Vallone and his buddies Consulting 233 Broadway, Suite 830
New York, NY 10279 LLC
#1 ...Kissena park corridor...I just visited this site to pay my respects to the brave American's and R.O.K.who died in the "forgotten War".
I think that the politicians at flushing , who described the invasion of S. korea by the N.korean/soviet military left out the fact that these two nations as well as china were Stalin/Mao/Sung COMMUNIST DICTATORSHIPS.
Anon #3:
The Korean War Memorial is in Kissena Park (entrace at Parsons and Rose Avenue.) It is NOT in Kissena Corridor park, which is bound by Main Street and Colden street.
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