Let The City Manage Its Greenspaces

City-Wide

A park watchdog says that volunteers who clean up their local green-spaces for free — like those with the new Cadman Park Conservancy — are giving the city a reason to slash even more funding from its already cash-strapped parks, according to the Brooklyn Paper.

Geoffrey Croft, who founded the New York City Park Advocates in part to ensure the city’s parks get their fair share of budget dollars, says it’s okay for residents to help keep parks clean, but they shouldn’t go to far.

“What these groups don’t realize is that they become a part of the problem,” said Geoffrey Croft, founder of NYC Park Advocates. “People have given up on getting the city to do its job.”

Croft said that public-private partnerships encourage the city to let citizens pay park maintenance instead of using tax dollars — a dangerous trend that is increasing the gap between the parks that have and those that have no while sending the Parks Department’s budget spiralling downward.

In fact, the city’s 2012 budget for Parks is $233 million, down from $238 million in 2011 and $258 million in 2010, leaving the caretakers of parkland with continually dwindling resources.

“I don’t think anyone has problems with people planting flowers and doing minor stuff, but when you get into taking over the role of a city agency, the disparity is a huge one,” Croft said.

The Cadman Park Conservancy formed earlier this year to fill in where the city can’t keep up. A band of locals on a barebones budget are planting flowers and fund-raising for drastic landscape improvements.

Compare this to entities like Central Park Conservancy, which privately funds most of the Manhattan oasis’s $37.4-million budget, or even Brooklyn Bridge Park, which is required by state mandate to be self-sustaining.

Brooklyn Bridge Park, with its massive $16-million annual budget, isn’t run by the Parks Department, but by the city-run Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation.

The corporation is pushing — against the community — to fund the 1.7-mile waterfront park by building luxury condos within the park’s footprint.

And that, says Croft, doesn’t bode well for city parks.

“Some groups raise money to plant flowers and some manage multimillion-dollar operations of parks,” Croft said. “But the big story is that the city refuses to fund its parks, so they’re forcing individuals to do it.”

Read More:

Park it! Watchdog says let city manage greenspace

The Brooklyn Paper - July 7, 2011 - By Kate Briquelet

Volunteers hope to keep Cadman Plaza spiffy

The Brooklyn Paper - July 7, 2011 - By Kate Briquelet

State Of Parks - Why Your Parks Look Like This

New York Daily News-July 3, 2011 - By Geoffrey Croft

Vets Outraged By Neglected War Memorial In Cadman Plaza Park

“It’s truly a disgrace,” Vanasco said. “People should be coming in here so they can look at these names, but instead the city fills it with junk.”

“A nation is judged on how they treat their veterans,” said Monsignor Louis Elias Milazzo of St. Lucy’s Church on Kent Avenue in Williamsburg, who officiated at Vanasco’s brief service. “The lives of the men and women who sacrificed themselves in a cause for freedom are being disrespected by the condition of this memorial. What does say about us as a nation?”

Once a shining tribute to World War II veterans, the memorial in Cadman Plaza Park is now mostly used for storage. (Photo by Tom Tracy)

Brooklyn

Armed with a priest and a fist full of American flags, four aging warriors honored the more than 7,000 Brooklynites who died in World War II on a different type of battlefield this past Veterans Day — inside a memorial dedicated to the great conflict which the city uses as a glorified storage shed, according to The Brooklyn Paper.

Stepping over rolled-up rugs and squirming between boxes and crates filled with cut-up logs, the seniors looked over the large bronze plates adorning the walls inside the memorial at the center of Cadman Plaza Park. The plates held the names of Brooklynites who perished in World War II — many of whom 83-year-old Jack Vanasco and his friends knew.

“I grew up with a lot of the guys on this wall,” Vanasco explained. “Many of them were from my old neighborhood and my brother and I would play ball with them.”

Abraham Rios and Jack Vanasco salute our borough’s veterans in front of Brooklyn’s World War II Memorial in Cadman Plaza Park. (Photo by Tom Tracy)

Yet with the exception of Vanasco and his squad, the names aren’t read by anyone anymore, save for the few Parks employees who drop off supplies and materials as they pass through the 250-seat auditorium.

The memorial is usually closed to the public. Vanasco and his team only gained entry after a kind-hearted city Parks employee let them inside to pay their respects on Veterans Day.

“It’s truly a disgrace,” Vanasco said. “People should be coming in here so they can look at these names, but instead the city fills it with junk.”

Read More:

Vets outraged by fallen war memorial in Brooklyn Heights

The Brooklyn Paper - November 12, 2010 - By Thomas Tracy

13-Year Old In Cadman Plaza West Park Theft

BROOKLYN

Cadman Caper

A 13-year-old thief was caught stealing a soccer player’s bag while he mimmicked his World Cup heroes in Cadman Plaza West Park on July 27, according to Courier-Life.

A witness said that he saw the kid snooping around the soccer player’s unattended bag between Johnson and Tillary streets at around 8 pm. The witness then gave chase,  and flagged down cops,  who retrieved the man’s bag,  which contained a cellphone,  jeans,  a watch,  an iPod,  and a wallet.

Read More:

Crime news from Brooklyn Heights and Downtown's 84th Precinct blotter

Courier-Life - August 4,  2010 -  By Stephen Brown

Cadman Plaza Sidewalk Danger

BROOKLYN

Watch Your Step. For years walking through Cadman Plaza near Brooklyn Borough Hall has been a minefield caused by cracked and missing blue stone in the sidewalk. Hours after the Brooklyn Paper published an embarrassing article the DRP dispatched a crew to do some patching.

Note:  Blue stone can not be patched.  Mr. Markowitz was not happy with the shabby work. 

And no mention from the DPR's press office regarding how many years this situation has existed. And of course no apology. 

No word yet on whether Mr. Markowitz is willing to divert part of the $ 64 million set aside for his amphitheater to address this "dangerous" situation. 

Well, it’s a start.

Hours after The Brooklyn Paper went online with its world exclusive about the disastrously broken sidewalk in front of Borough Hall, someone made a fairly lame effort to fix it.

What once was an obstacle course of fractured paving stones is now an only-less-slighty dangerous walkway of half-dry mud and gravel. Even Borough President Markowitz agreed that the repairs were lousy.

Read More:

Marty not satisfied with Borough Hall repairs

The Brooklyn Paper -January 14, 2010 -  By Andy Campbell