Whitney Woods In Staten Island Saved From Development

The city acquired the 1.5-acre wooded parcel on May 2nd and it will be incorperated into the Staten Island Bluebelt. Up to 70 residential units were planned for the site. Visitors can access Whitney Woods in the Grasmere section of the Island from dead-end Whitney Avenue, off Clove Road, above, and from the dead-end of Whitney Avenue at its intersection with Parkinson Avenue. (Photo: Virginia Sherry/ Staten Island Advance)

Staten Island

An environmental celebration will take place on Saturday at 11 a.m. with Borough President James Molinaro, City Councilman James Oddo (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn), and officials from the city Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) gathering alongside neighborhood residents to erect a Bluebelt sign in Whitney Woods, at the corner of Parkinson and Whitney avenue, according to the Staten Island Advance.

The city acquired the 1.5-acre wooded parcel on May 2, in the successful culmination of a campaign to save the environmentally sensitive land from construction of up to 70 residential units. The move preserves the property as forever-wild open space, part of the Richmond Creek watershed that includes Grasmere, Old Town, Arrochar, and South Beach.

“We have seen too many of our green spaces on Staten Island pillaged by inappropriate development,” said Oddo. “That is why this victory is so sweet.

“We are literally preventing the potential development of 70 housing units in a pristine green space and protecting the local community by ensuring that Whitney Woods acts as a stormwater drainage and management area,” he added.

“The preservation of Whitney Woods is good news for the Bluebelt and good news for Staten Island,” said Molinaro, noting that Staten Island has many locations where development has increased flooding. “We acquired Whitney Woods, preserved the wetlands, and helped make the neighborhood much more secure from flooding,” he said.

The land was purchased for $2.735 million. Oddo contributed $1.45 million from his City Council budget, Molinaro another $985,000 from his borough president budget, and DEP kicked in $300,000.

The property is generally bounded by the bed of unbuilt Whitney Avenue from Parkinson to Woodlawn avenues, and the bed of unbuilt Woodlawn Avenue from Whitney to Leslies avenues, as well as privately owned lots bounded by Marie Street and Woodlawn and Leslie Avenues.

Visitors can easily access Whitney Woods from dead-end Whitney Avenue, off Clove Road , and from the dead-end of Whitney Avenue at the corner of Parkinson Avenue.

Read More:

Housing development denied for Staten Island neighborhood

Staten Island Advance - May 9, 2012 - By Virginia N. Sherry

James Oddo's Public Battle To Fix Willowbrook Park Pond Flooding $ Pays Off

The city will allocate $1 million to fix Willowbrook Park Pond, thanks to the advocacy of SI Council member James Oddo who said the mitigation work will allow the level of the pond to be controlled so it can be lowered during heavy rains.

When Hurricane Irene hit six months ago, Willowbrook Park pond overflowed, flooding nearby streets, cars and dozens of basements in homes. During a heated City Council budget hearing in March Mr. Oddo publicly aired his frustration. He tried to get Adrian Benepe to accept responsibility for the clogged drains due to what he said was a lack of basic maintenance which lead to the flooding. Benepe said it was instead an "Act Of God." (Photo: Bill Lyons/Staten island Advance)

Staten Island

Hurricane Irene flooded Saybrook Street in Willowbrook, as shown in this Aug. 28 photo. (Photo courtesy of Janice Denenberg Paz via Staten Island Advance)

Help is on the way for Willowbrook residents ravaged by floods during Hurricane Irene last year.

The city will allocate $1 million to fully fund a fix for Willowbrook Park Pond, which overflowed its banks and caused massive damage to the surrounding neighborhood during Hurricane Irene last year. The money will be included in Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Fiscal Year 2013 budget, which will be unveiled at City Hall tomorrow, according to the Staten Island Advance.

City Councilman James Oddo (R-Mid-Island/Brooklyn) said that he hoped the announcement would give Willowbrook residents "some mental relief immediately.

Help is on the way."

Inaction on Willowbrook caused Oddo to publicly light into Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe during a City Council hearing in March. But Oddo today said he was "grateful" to Benepe, Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson and the city Department of Environmental Protection for getting the funding in place.

Oddo said that Benepe called him this afternoon with the news. It was the only "new needs" allocation from Parks approved by the city Office of Management and Budget, Oddo said.

"We brought a lot of passion to the fight," said Oddo. "It might be an understatement, but it wasn't a pretty process at times. Sometimes that's what it takes to break the status quo."

Oddo said that the mitigation work will allow the level of the pond to be controlled so it can be lowered during heavy rains. The rain water will run through a cement-encased culvert, which will keep it from getting blocked with debris, as happened during Irene.

A Parks spokesperson said that bids on phase 1 of the mitigation plan are due on June 1, with work possibly to begin later this year. Oddo said there was no timetable on when the work would be completed. In the interim, Parks will use a siphon which will allow the agency to drain some of the water in the pond.

The $1 million in funding, which will be added to $200,000 already in the pot, will allow the mitigation work to be done all at once. The spokesperson thanked Oddo "for advocating for funding on our behalf, and look forward to getting started on the project."

During Irene, Saybrook Street, Croft Place, Goller Place and Eton Place were flooded, with some residents evacuated in rowboats by the FDNY and hundreds of thousands of dollars in property damage resulting. Some homes had eight feet of water in them. Oddo blamed insufficient infrastructure and a grate that literally became partially blocked by empty plastic soda bottles and wayward softballs from nearby fields for the flooding, saying that the pond culvert should never have been left in such poor condition.

"When something as foundational as your home is in chaos, everything else becomes bedlam," Oddo said today. The agency is in the early stages of the design for phase 2 of the project, involving the enclosed culverts.

As for the rest of the budget, a $495 million hole in the city's Fiscal Year 2013 budget will mostly be plugged with restitution money from the CityTime scandal, Bloomberg will announce.

Administration sources said that in giving his budget address at City Hall, Bloomberg will say that the budget hole comes from a $352 million decrease in tax revenue projections wrought by a slump on Wall Street, and $143 million in increased agency costs.

The numbers are updates from the mayor's preliminary budget numbers announced in February.

The hole will primarily be filled with $466 million recovered in the CityTime settlement with Science Applications International Corp. The company paid full restitution after a scandal involving a fraud-ridden city payroll system.

While the city's economy continues to grow along with tax revenues compared to the prior year, Bloomberg will say that the city's financial services firms continue to suffer, slicing profits and reducing the forecast for tax revenues from Wall Street.

On the bright side, revenue projections are up in the tech, film/TV, tourism and higher education sectors, areas that Bloomberg has looked to bolster.

"The mayor has spent the last decade diversifying the city's economy because the financial markets will always have ups and downs," said Bloomberg spokesman Stu Loeser. "Our efforts have paid off, with growth and job creation in non-finance sectors like tourism, tech and TV production, which softens the blow from the drastic drop in Wall Street profits."

While city agencies saved $124 million from FY 2012 and 2013, increased social service and other needs totaled $267 million, making for a net overall cost increase of $143 million.

Read More:

$1 million in NYC budget for fix at Staten Island's Willowbrook Park Pond

Staten Island Advance - May 2, 2012 - By Tom Wrobleski

Oddo Calls Benepe Disgraceful And Says Rudy Would Have Fired Him

A Walk In The Park - March 22, 2012

Oddo Calls Benepe Disgraceful And Says Rudy Would Have Fired Him

"I'll tell ya, I can't wait for the 650 days to be up. I can't wait till we get someone in there who treats all five boroughs equally." - James Oddo to Adrain Benepe

When Hurricane Irene hit six months ago, Willowbrook Park pond overflowed, flooding nearby streets, cars and dozens of basements in homes. During a City Council budget hearing today SI Council member James Oddo tried to get Adrian Benepe to accept responsibility for the clogged drains due to what he said was a lack of basic maintenance which lead to the flooding. Benepe said it was instead an "Act Of God." (Photo: Bill Lyons/Staten island Advance)

Staten Island

Staten Island City Council member James Oddo and Parks Commissioner Adrain Benepe provided some fireworks during a Council Parks and Recreation budget hearing this afternoon.

Oddo said it was no 'Act of God' that lead to flooding dozens of people's homes six months ago when Hurricane Irene hit - it was a lack of maintenance from the Parks Department.

Staten Island City Councilman James Oddo, left, called NYC Parks & Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe arrogant, cavalier and disgraceful. Benepe told Oddo to have a nice day.

The pond in Willowbrook Park overflowed, flooding nearby streets, cars and dozens of homes.

The cause, according to the angry council member, was a culvert that was blocked by plastic bottles and errand softballs from nearby fields that had not been properly maintained by the Parks Department.

Adrain Benepe did not agree. He repeatedly said the flooding was caused by Hurricane Irene, not an "Act of God" and refused to acknowledge or take any role or responsibility for the damage.

Many people in the Willow Brook/Bulls Head section of Staten Island suffered huge loses in property damage and personal belongings due to the damage. The four streets that were flooded are adjacent to Willowbrook Park.

Oddo said some residents had eight feet of water in their basements.

If Rudy Giuliani were mayor, Benepe "would have been canned a long time ago, " the councilmember said.

Oddo said he couldn't wait until the remaining days of this administration were over and Benepe was gone.

"I'll tell ya, I can't wait for the 650 days to be up," he said. "I can't wait till we get someone in there who treats all five boroughs equally."

"I appreciate your passion," Benepe said condescendingly to the visibly upset Oddo.

Since the storm Mr. Oddo has been raising the issue with the administration.

After the hearing Oddo called Benepe arrogant and said he has gone above him to address this issue.

"I think he (Oddo) is positing a problem that may not be a problem," Benepe said after the hearing.

The heated exchange between Parks Commissioner Adrain Benepe came during a City Council budget hearing today where the Bloomberg Administration is proposing allocating only $ 234 million of a $ 68 billion city budget for the Parks Department. That's just 0.34% for an agency responsible for 14% of the city's land.

This was certainly not the first time Mr. Oddo has publicly expressed his displeasure with Park issues under Benepe. Since 2009 he has been battling the agency over its lack of attention over repairing the Oakwood Beach Berm.

“I simply do not have a great deal of confidence in the Parks Department’s ability to see this project through to completion in a timely and cost-effective manner,” Oddo wrote to Benepe last June regarding another project, the stalled $70 million Ocean Breeze indoor track.

"This is not agency that I trust with the tax payer money anymore," Oddo said in August after a dispute with Benepe over Benjamin Soto Skate Park.

In October he said the Parks Department is "insular, unresponsive and arrogant,” from Commissioner Adrian Benepe on down and that they believe “Parks property is their property. But it’s the people’s property.”

“Benepe has been there too long,” Oddo said. “It’s never the people’s agenda. It’s always their agenda.”

- Geoffrey Croft

From Capital

The Parks Department's budget is shrinking, as is its ability to keep New York City parks in states of good repair. That can lead to discontent, which boiled over in dramatic fashion this morning during a City Council hearing on the Parks Department budget.

Following Commissioner Adrian Benepe's testimony in a tightly packed hearing room at 250 Broadway, Parks Committee chair Melissa Mark-Viverito turned the floor over to her colleagues on the panel.

When it was Staten Island councilman Jimmy Oddo's turn to speak, he quickly turned the discussion to the issue ofWillowbrook Park Pond, which overflowed during Hurricane Irene and flooded nearby homes, and which, like the hurricane-damaged boardwalk in Rockaway, have yet to be repaired.

Here's some of the exchange:

Oddo: I hope you're familiar with the situation at Willowbrook Park. Your pond on your park gets backed up, overflows to the tune of eight feet in people's basements. Was that an act of God?

Benepe: Yes.

Oddo: It was an act of God?

Benepe: Yes.

Oddo: Actually, commissioner, it was an act of man. Actually, more precisely, it was the inaction of man. And 'man' in this case is colloquial for 'your agency.' Your agency didn't keep the drain and the culvert in good repair. It got backed up. It got backed up by softballs and plastic bottles.

...

Benepe: Hurricane Irene did untold damage across the northeast, billions of dollars of damage. It did millions and millions of dollars of damage across the city. It was an act of God. We are very conscious of all of the different places where infrastructure needs to be adapted to the fact that sea levels are rising, storms are becoming more frequent and more unpredictable.

...

Oddo: Wait a second, wait a second. An act of God would be some of your trees getting blown down. Water backing up to the tune of eight feet in people's basement because your culvert...

Benepe: That's your view of things.

Oddo: That's not my view of things! That's my view of things? You deny that your culvert was, you're saying it was in good repair? You're saying that wasn't the reason for the flooding?

Benepe: You know, there was a hurricane that caused hundreds of millions of dollars if not billions of damage across the northeast.

Oddo: Wait a second, if the culvert was working right and you had a good system, you wouldn't have had eight feet in people's basement. That wasn't an act of God!

Benepe: Hindsight is 50/50.

Oddo: Oh, commissioner. Wow. Wow. That's what you think? That's your attitude for my district? And for these people in Saybrook?

Benepe: The Culvert was covered with trees blown down by the hurricane.

Oddo: No it was not! I was out there! I was out there in the rain! I was out there. It was certainly not. It was blocked up by softballs and plastic bottles ... It's an embarrassment! It's an embarrassment! And the fact that you're giving me such a cavalier attitude is consistent with your history, but it still blows my mind.

Benepe: Thank you very much, councilmember.

Oddo: You know, commissioner, these are people who are part of the City of New York. And the fact that you have such a cavalier attitude about what they've endured for the last four months is really a disgrace. It's really a disgrace. I've come to accept the cost overruns, and the time delays as Councilmember Lander has alluded to. But this attitude is unacceptable, it really is. It's disgraceful. And this is the same attitude from the man who made a comment about Staten Island, about who has class and who doesn't have class. That is absolutely outrageous. If Rudy Giuliani were the mayor, you would have been canned a long time ago. You realize that?

Mark-Viverito: Councilmember.

Benepe: Have a nice day, councilmember.

Oddo: Disgraceful that you don't care. You can hate me all you want. But the fact that you don't think it's a priority to address, to find $700,000 so that these people don't have to go through that again, so that every time that there's a forecast of heavy rain, their lives aren't turned upside down, the fact that you don't care about that, is really an absolute, it's an amazing thing.

Benepe: That's simply inaccurate. It was our staff who were out there in the hurricane.

Oddo: No, no, no, it was D.E.P. It was D.E.P. out there.

Benepe: It was our staff.

Oddo: Oh please, it was D.E.P. who we called up to fix after the hurricane. Please. You weren't there, sir. I was.

Benepe: Our staff was there, and I have pictures of it.

Mark-Viverito intervened to say she thought Oddo had made his point and asked him if he had any specific questions on the budget. He didn't, but he did have one last thing to say.

"I'll tell ya, I can't wait for the 650 days to be up," he said. "I can't wait till we get someone in there who treats all five boroughs equally."

Benepe went on to field questions about tree-stump removal, and the lack of money for such things.

According to the advocacy group New Yorkers for Parks, the Parks Department's staff has been reduced by nearly 40 percent since 2008, primarily in the maintenance and operations department. This year's proposed budget for the department, which controls some 29,000 acres of parkland in New York City, would eliminate funding for up to 800 Job Training Program participants, who do a lot of parks maintenance.

Benepe indicated in his written testimony, delivered at the beginning of the hearing, that the department's financial circumstances were dire:

"Without the Council's restorations, staff promoted to supervise pool and beach operations will not be replaced, and coverage for seasonal operations such as tennis courts, ballfields, spray showers, picnic and barbeque areas and grass cutting will be curtailed. In addition, we will once again be forced to close four pools and shorten the pool season for all the pools by two weeks citywide."

Read More:

Oddo Calls Bloomberg's Parks Commissioner Disgraceful And Says Rudy would have Fired Him

Capital - March 22, 2012 - By Dana Rubinstein

NYC parks boss scolded for apparent indifference to Staten Island flooding problem

Staten Island Advance - March 23, 2012 - By Judy L. Randall

A pond that should have stayed put

Staten Island Advance - September 07, 2011 - Mark D. Stein

Traumatized by underwater experience

Staten Island Advance - February 15, 2012 - Mark D. Stein

Staten Island Lawmakers Criticize “Lack of Urgency” Demonstrated

by Parks Department on Repairing the Oakwood Beach Berm

The Office Of James S. Oddo - November 3, 2011

New hurdles for Staten Island’s costly, troubled indoor track project

Staten Island Advance - June 15, 2011 - By Tom Wrobleski

NY1 Exclusive: Councilman Oddo Threatens To Cut Funds

To Parks Department

August 4, 2011 - By Aaron Dickens

PEP Mounted Patrols Leaving Staten Island

Apollo, steed: PEP Officer John Mancuso takes his partner to be curried last month. In an effort to keep patrols on the island the Staten Island Zoo agreed to house the horses at a reduced cost to what the city currently pays. The Parks Department rejected the offer.

Staten Island

In a swift kick to Staten Island, the “Borough of Parks,” the city Parks Department has said nay to an offer from the Staten Island Zoo aimed at keeping horse-mounted patrols here, according to the Staten Island Advance.

And in a further stomping of the borough, the agency pulled a Halloween trick and removed the horses yesterday, a day ahead of schedule.

Zoo Executive Director Ken Mitchell said that the Zoo offered to absorb the $900 labor costs per month of housing the horses at the West Brighton zoo.

That would have left Parks responsible for $1,100 a month in hay, bedding and grain costs. That’s down from the $2,000 the agency currently pays to house the horses here.

“They didn’t accept it,” Mitchell told the Advance.

He said that Parks came in “unannounced” yesterday and removed the horses, which were supposed to stay until today.

“We’re disappointed thatwe weren’t able to reach some type of compromise,” said Mitchell. “We’re going to greatly miss having those horses at the Zoo.”

And the borough’s lost horses could end up being Central Park’s gain.

Two of the agency’s horses have been stabled at the Zoo, while two others are housed in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx.

A source said the horses being removed from the Island will now be housed at Van Cortlandt, while the Bronx horses are moved to Central Park to replace horses that have been retired.

“I don’t know why our horses weren’t good enough to go to Central Park,” the source said. Parks did not comment after repeated requests from the Advance.

The city has said it expects to save $24,000 a year by not having the horses boarded at the Zoo.

City Councilman James Oddo (R-Mid-Island/Brooklyn) lobbied Parks to take the Zoo’s deal.

“It’s hard to believe that it comes down to dollars and cents when the Zoo made such a good-faith offer,” he said. “But that’s Parks. It’s always their agenda, not the Island’s. Their default answer is ‘no.’”

The Island, famed for having more parkland, at 7,200 acres, than any other borough, will continue to be patrolled by Parks Enforcement Patrol officers, the agency has said.

Mounted patrols are highly visible, and educate the public on the rules and regulations in the city’s parks. They have been fixtures on the Island for 30 years.

With the loss of the two horses and accompanying patrol officers, there will be just six enforcement officers to patrol all of the Island’s parkland.

The NYPD also patrols the borough’s parks.

Parks has said the department would do its best to “maintain” the current level of patrol officers and replace the mounted patrol with officers on foot in light of budget constraints.

Read More:

Parks Department spurns Staten Island Zoo's horse-trading, moves mounts

Staten Island Advance - November 01, 2011 - By Tom Wrobleski

Councilman James Oddo Threatens To Cut Parks Department Funds Over Handling Of Skate Park

"This is not an agency I trust anymore with the taxpayers money any more," said Councilman James Oddo.

Staten Island City Councilman James Oddo has threatened to cut funds to the Parks Department . This is the latest skirmish between his office and the agency. (Screen grab: NY1 News)

After 13 years in office, City Councilman James Oddo said Thursday that he is fed up with the city Parks Department, due to a dispute over the renovation of Benjamin Soto Skate Park in Midland Beach.

Read/View More:

NY1 Exclusive: Councilman Oddo Threatens To Cut Funds To Parks Department

August 4, 2011 - By Aaron Dickens

SI's Soto Skate Park Closed For Repairs - Critics Cite Lack of Maintenance

A Walk In The Park - November 18, 2010

S. I. Comfort Station Fitness Facility Proposal Needs Investors - Parks Dept.

“Parks currently has no long-term plan for the use of these structures other than their current use as comfort stations and headquarters for the Parks District Office and Lifeguard Operations. However, Parks will look favorably upon expressions of interest that have a recreational, fitness, and healthy food component to them,” the notice reads.

A bicyclist rides along the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Boardwalk in 2009. Apparently things have gotten so bad for Staten Island and the Park Department that they are seeking a private investor to convert one or two comfort stations – each approximately 12,331 square feet – into fitness centers on the beach. Councilman James Oddo (R-Mid-Island/Brooklyn) has proposed exercise areas for the East Shore waterfront along the Midland Beach waterfront or South Beach boardwalk which would feature outdoor workout areas.

The agency sent out a “Request for Expressions of Interest” (RFEI) on Nov. 1, and will sponsor a tour of the area on Dec. 8. Responses to the RFEI are due back on January 5. The City of New York/ Parks and "Recreation" Department spends less than 5 percent of its budget on recreation. (Photo: S. I. Advance file)

Staten Island

The East Shore is gonna get ripped.

At least, that’s what City Councilman James Oddo (R-Mid-Island/Brooklyn) hopes will happen if the city transforms a portion of the waterfront into Staten Island’s version of “Muscle Beach,” according to the Staten Island advance.

Oddo -- an admitted “gym rat” -- envisions a beachfront fitness facility along the Midland Beach waterfront or South Beach boardwalk similar to the famous body building mecca in Southern California. Since its creation five decades ago, Muscle Beach in Venice, Calif. has become a tourist magnet and an economic engine for the surrounding community.

“Now that we have a boardwalk that is an attraction for people, their needs to be other amenities,” Oddo said.

The idea of an open-air, beachfront gym no doubt conjures up images of the Island’s buffed denizens flexing their muscles for gawking passersby. But Oddo also sees it as an opportunity to address some of the borough’s health problems – including the highest rates of obesity and diabetes in the city.

Read More:

Pol proposes fitness facility for East Shore waterfront

Staten Island Advance - November 11, 2010 - By Peter N. Spencer

Continued Budget Cuts Puts The Public At Even Greater Risk From Falling Trees

October 6, 2010. DPR First Deputy Commissioner Liam Kavanagh testifying before the City Council's Parks Committee hearing on Keeping Pedestrians and Park Users Safe from Damaged Trees. Mr. Kavanagh presented ten pages of written testimony. The Central Park Conservancy and the Wildlife Conservation Society declined to testify.

The hearing also covered Intro 311, a bill introduced by James Odoo (R. Staten Island) requiring a 30 day notification to schools, hospitals and other entities providing services to children prior to tree planting.

"I agree with you we should be looking at folks as stakeholders in this process as we plant trees," a visibly frustrated Oddo told Mr. Kavanagh. "Unfortunately myself and some of my colleagues haven't seen that. And what we've seen is an attitude on behalf of Parks (Department) and the folks pushing the Million Trees initiative that its sort of their way and everyone else fall in line."    (Photos: Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates) click on image to enlarge.

 

City-Wide

Recent cuts to the Parks Department's budget have put residents at even more risk of serious injury and death because of falling tree limbs, parks advocates warned at a City Council hearing Wednesday, according to DNAinfo. 

The hearing was called to examine the steps the department is taking to keep pedestrians and park users safe following recent storms and a string of deaths, injuries and delays caused by downed branches and trees.

In the same period that the number of people struck by tree limbs seems to have risen dramatically in New York, the number of trees the department pruned through its block program dropped more than 60 percent — from 79,658 last year to 29,782 in 2010 — according to the most recent mayor’s management report.

The number of trees maintained by city workers is also likely to fall more in the coming year as the department budget is set to shrink by nearly $20 million, from $294 million in 2010 to $276 million in 2011.

Full-time maintenance and operations will also drop from 2,600 people to 2,200.

Unless funding is restored, "the trees are just going to fall further and further into neglect," warned Alyson Beha of New Yorkers for Parks.

Advocates believe that New Yorkers are even at more risk, because at the same time the city is cutting its budgets for tree maintenance, it is also aggressively pursuing its MillionTreesNYC program, which aims to plant 1 million new trees by 2017.

"Considering the aggressive way we've been planting trees, the maintenance of trees becomes an issue," Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito, chair of the Parks and Recreation Committee, said during the hearing.

In June, 6-month-old Gianna Ricciutti was killed and her mother seriously injured as the two posed for a photo in Central Park when a large branch fell on top of them — the second death caused by falling timber in the park this year.

At Wednesday's hearing, Liam Kavanagh, the Parks Department's first deputy commissioner, said that safety is the agency's first priority and outlined a number of steps the department has taken to keep its 8 million trees safe, including removing dead or dying trees within 30 days of reports and making sure that every tree is pruned each decade.

Regarding the department's failure to change its practices since the death of Ricciutti, Kavanagh said that "while you can always do something different or do more, we believe the practices that were in place to provide tree care were consistent with the best practices in the industry."

He also said the department does not check on the maintenance done by the Central Parks Conservancy, which is responsible for maintaining all trees in the park, except for those on zoo grounds.

The Conservancy said in a statement that it has expanded its care program for trees in the park, which has been battered by severe weather over the past several years.

Staff have increased inspections and pruning, and more than 6,000 of the park's 24,000 trees were pruned last year.

But advocates who testified at the hearing insisted that more must be done to keep residents safe.

"Clearly they're not doing enough, not even close," said Geoffrey Croft, President of NYC Park Advocates, who said the department has just a "fraction" of the resources it needs.

"You shouldn't have to look up and possibly think you're going to be hit by a branch or tree," he said. "We're talking about peoples lives."

August 6, 2010 - Central Park. A private landscape company hired by the Central Park Conservancy prunes trees near the bridal path on the West side of the park. 

Parks Department spokesperson Vickie Karp told the New York Post that the Central Park Conservancy was not required to give information requested for an August 29th article on tree safety.

Read More:

Budget Cuts Put New Yorkers At Even Greater Risk of Falling Trees

DNAinfo - October 6, 2010 - By  Jill Colvin

Who's In Charge of Central Park's "Killer Tree"?

A Walk In The Park  - June 28, 2010