April 11, 2019
On April 10, the City Council released their response to the Mayor's preliminary Executive Budget for fiscal year 2020, and one thing is clear: they are listening! Some key pieces of funding called for by Play Fair are included in their budget response which shows that the campaign is working!
One of their top asks of the Mayor is to provide permanent funding for 150 parks workers and gardeners, providing these folks with good green jobs while also securing some of the maintenance work that our parks so desperately need.
They also recommended that NYC Parks not be included in the Mayor's proposed hiring freeze, which is great news for an agency that is already deeply understaffed.
However, a key piece of Play Fair’s budget ask is missing: we called for $65 million to allow the 48 largest parks in NYC, vital neighborhood and regional resources, to have on-site zone management maintenance crews. These crews are a critical to larger parks, where the size requires maintenance staff who are experts in the unique landscapes of each zone. It would also expand on-site crews to all eligible smaller neighborhood parks that currently lack full-time, dedicated staff.
We need to continue to push for the full $100 million to be included in the budget. This funding would have a transformative impact on our parks and open spaces while also creating good, green jobs for New Yorkers.
In addition to their request to the Mayor to provide $10 million to permanently fund park worker positions, the City Council also called on the Administration to increase the Parks Department’s Fiscal 2020 Executive Budget by $26.5 million to improve maintenance and operations, allocated in almost exactly the same way that the Play Fair campaign calls for:
The City Council recognizes that parks are critical city infrastructure, and now that we know they're listening it's time to raise our voices even more and tell the City to Play Fair for parks!