Cries of "Part-Time" Parks Commissioner Grow As Silver Travels The Globe

Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver is a busy man. The globe-trotting Parks Commissioner  was presented with an honorary member lifetime award at Oxford University in London on September 20, 2014.  Over the last five months he racked up more than fifty-thousand frequent flyer miles while also presiding over the country's largest urban park system. 

City-Wide

Where's Mitch-Waldo.

That's the question that is being asked with increasing frequency. 

The globe-trotting new Parks Commissioner has racked up more than fifty-thousand frequent flyer miles not counting his weekly trips to Boston over the last five months NYC Park Advocates has learned.

International destinations include South Africa, Singapore, Spain, London and domestic travel included Kentucky and  Raleigh N.C. for previous commitments which were not cancelled when he became parks commissioner.

Some park employees say they keep track of the whereabouts and views commissioner by his twitter account.

One day a week he travels up to Boston to teach a graduate planning course - Friday afternoon - 2:00- 5:00 at Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

Office Hours: Friday 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.

In between his personal traveling, teaching and lecturing gigs he presides over the largest urban park system in the country.

For the first time in the city's history a new parks commissioner began his job more than four months after a new mayor was sworn in.  Although he technically began his job on May 12,  he didn't move back to the city till June after packing up and selling his house in Raleigh, N.C. while his wife - a teacher - and daughter finished the school year. 

Parks insiders note that with the exception some high profile patronage jobs appointed by Mayor Bloomberg including Betsy Smith and Larry Scott Blackmon who have departed senior management has remained virtually unchanged in the new administration which is not a good sign for an agency that is widely regarded as being in desperate need of reform.

The grumblings have gotten louder within the agency among some long-time park employees who are frustrated that he has not made personnel changes and that he is not further up to speed on the inner workings of the Parks Department. 

"He keeps saying,  ''I don't know' and 'I'll have to get back to you on that,' said a long-time parks employee. 

"He can't be expected to know everything at this stage but certainly being away so much has impacted things here."

At least one long-time parks employee said they saw a silver lining in Silver's responses and even finds them refreshing compared to the previous administration.

"At least he says he doesn't know unlike the previous commissioner (Adrian Benepe) who would simply lie to your face… and smirk."

"He seems open and that he's listening but we'll see if that translates to any real change around here. That will be the proof." 

Several employees in interviews referred to Mr. Silver as a part-time parks commissioner.  

"Being in touch with Liam (Kavanagh First Deputy Commissioner)  and Kate (Spellman, chief of staff)  is not the same as being there running the agency that is what we need, true leadership not running around the world," said another long time employee who like the others spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

"That's great that he is traveling all around the world giving other places advice but our city needs planning."

On Friday the commissioner said that there was nothing to report for 2015 relating to any future travel and teaching plans and would share them as soon as he decides what his plans are and when they have been approved.  Approvals must come from the First Deputy Mayor and Conflict of Interest Board. 

"I have not made any decisions for 2015 and therefore nothing has been approved,"  Commissioner Silver said.

"Speculation at this point would not be productive."

The Parks Department’s controversial plan to continue to replace swaths of the historic Coney Island wooden boardwalk with concrete slabs has been met with fierce opposition.   

For six months area representatives Councilman Mark Treyger and Chaim Deutsch have been trying to get the De Blasio administration to address the environmental and public safety concerns to no avail.

On May 19th,  the council members along fellow member Deborah Rose and Parks Chair Mark Levine sent a letter to Bill De blasio urging the administration to place a moratorium on laying additional concrete slabs across on the boardwalk until adequate engineering and environmental studies can been done. 

"In October 2010... a Bloomberg-administered Parks Department began gutting wood from sections of the Coney Island Boardwalk and replacing them with concrete slabs through a series of “pilot studies,”  the letter stated.

"That designation enabled the replacements to circumvent environmental studies and regulatory oversight, as well as public scrutiny," it read.

"In addition to concerns about the aesthetics of the concrete slabs, there is potential evidence that the concrete may have exacerbated storm-surge damage during Hurricane Sandy."

   

The administration has blown off their concerns.

Treyger and Deutsch finally got a meeting scheduled with Silver in early September but the Parks Department canceled it at the last minute.

A former council member has fared no better. 

Former City Council member Carol Greiser has also been frustrated over not being able to secure a meeting.  

Since June she said she has contacted the commissioner's office close to a dozen times trying to get a meeting on behalf of The Union Square Community Coalition regarding the controversial Union Square Park restaurant issue.  

"They never got back to me, not once," said Ms. Greiser who represented the area around the park for twenty-one years. 

"They were passing the buck as to who was doing the scheduling," Greiser said. 

On Friday, after a reporter contacted the press office for comment, Ms. Greiser said she received a call offering her several potential dates in December, seven months after she first contacted the office.  

Parks Commissioner Silver returned to Raleigh N.C. to attend the Hopscotch Design Festival where he spoke on September 3, 2014.

He returns to his alma mater, The Pratt Institute on Wednesday, Nov 12, 2014 6:00 PM—8:00 PM  to present his vision of the future of NYC parks and public space under the new mayoral administration.  

Conference Destinations

•  Durban,  South Africa,  October 19- 22.  He was the International Keynote speaker at the Planning Africa 2014 conference. 

•   Lexington Kentucky - October 1-3 (which was announced on July 8th months after he was appointed) KeyNote Speaker at the American Planning Association organized  OKI Regional Planning Conference.

•  September 20.  The Royal Town Planning Institute presented Mitchell Silver with honorary member lifetime award at Oxford University,  in London.   

•  September 22. A few days later he scooted over to he University of Sheffield to give a lecture at the Department of Town and Regional Planning for students and the general public. 

•  Raleigh N.C.  September 3-4  Hopscotch Design Festival. 

•  Singapore - July 10-14.  World Cities Summit.   

•  Bilbao, Spain - June 11-14,  Bilbao Urban Innovation and Leadership Dialogues   

Teaching

•  He is a  John T. Dunlop Lecturer of Housing and Urbanization at Harvard University Graduate School of Design in Cambridge, Mass.  where he teaches a graduate planning course on Friday afternoons - 2:00- 5:00 during the fall semester called,   "Planning for the 21st Century: Emerging Trends, Challenges and Opportunities/Fall 2014"  

On March 21, 2014 Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the appointment of Mitchell Silver as the city’s next parks commissioner a press conference at Seward Park on the Lower East Side. Commissioner Silver, Mayor Bill de Blasio, and First Deputy Parks Commissioner Liam Kavanagh who has largely been running the agency this year confer moments before the announcemnt.  (Photo: Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates) Click on image to enlarge.

Read More:

Globe-Trotting Parks Dept. Head Too Busy to Meet, Community Groups Say

DNAinfo - November 3, 2014 -  By James Fanelli

Former Bloomberg Operative Larry Scott Blackmon Lands At Controversial FreshDirect

"And now he's working against community interests including parks in the South Bronx." 
 - South Bronx resident 

Access Denied.  For decades the Mott Haven waterfront in the South Bronx has been inaccessible due to commercial industry.  

In March a woman placed a sun flower on the locked gate leading to the Harlem River Railyard along the water front while protestors sat in front of the gate. Nine South Bronx residents were arrested in the peaceful civil disobedience action when a blocked gate prevented them from entering the public brownfield land, the proposed location of controversial FreshDirect relocation. The charges against those arrested were later dropped.    (Photo: By Leah Kozak via Twitter)

The DOT NY State-owned land has been leased to the Galesi group for 99 years.

Bronx

By Geoffrey Croft

FreshDirect has hired Larry Scott Blackmon,  the former "Deputy Commissioner for Community Outreach" at the Parks Department  who reportedly specializes in African-American outreach to head up Community and Government Affairs for the controversial online grocer.

He is being charged with "deepening and expanding the company's community involvement,"   according to a press release. 

Blackmon, a former Michael Bloomberg operative on two consecutive re-election campaigns  landed a high-paying job in the Parks Department with zero park experience after Bloomberg was elected to a third term.  

For the past several years South Bronx Unite,  a coalition of over fifty groups has been fighting the online grocer's planned subsidized re-location and truck facility move along the South Bronx waterfront.  

Long cut off from the waterfront the community is fighting for the land instead to be developed into open space and parks with green job and educational opportunities.

"And now he's working against community interests including parks in the South Bronx," said South Bronx resident Jennifer Rivera.   



FreshDirect, if allowed to proceed, would bring 1,500 additional daily truck trips through the South Bronx.  Critics argue that the plan is a Bloomberg-era relic attempting to give the diesel-intensive on-line grocer nearly $130 million in public subsidies to move to this public waterfront land from Queens. 

Read More:

Larry Scott Blackmon Named Vice President, Community and Government Affairs at FreshDirect

PR newswire - July 22, 2014 


Nine Arrested Protesting FreshDirect Relocation To South Bronx - Waterfront Access Denied
A Walk In The Park -  March 23, 2014 - By Geoffrey Croft

Bloomberg Campaign Operative Hired as Deputy Parks Commissioner

A Walk In The Park - January 12, 2010  - By Geoffrey Croft

Parks Commish Veronica White Lands Job With Bloomberg After Lobbying Efforts To Stay Failed

Park Commissioner Veronica White (center) flanked by Deputy Parks Commissioner (and former Bloomberg re-election political operative) Larry Scott Blackmon  (L) and First Deputy Commissioner for Parks Liam Kavanagh at a City Council Hearing in September 2013.  Mr. Kavanagh has been Acting Parks Commissioner since Ms. White's departure on December 31st.  (Photo: Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates)

"We have a great operating budget,"  Veronica White embarrassingly testified at the hearing.

City-Wide

Parks Commissioner Veronica White quietly left the agency on December 31 and landed a job at Bloomberg L.P. after lobbying efforts to stay on failed NYC Park Advocates has  learned. 

Sources say Ms. White had attempted to enlist the help of several prominent people including DC 37 head Lillian Roberts to lobby the new administration but those efforts were ultimately unsuccessful.

No public announcement was made regarding her departure and Ms. White did not send out a customary Broadcast email announcement to all parks employees. Instead she sent an email to upper management on Dec. 31st  thanking them and stating it was her last day according to several park employees.

Ms. White began her employment the following day on Jan. 1 at Bloomberg L. P. as chief of staff to Thomas Secunda, Vice Chairman & Global Head of Financial Products & Services, and a founding partner of Bloomberg L.P. 

"She was more of a figure head,"  said a long-time parks employee of White's sixteen month tenure, and speaking on the condition of condition of anonymity.  

"Liam's been running the agency since Adrian left," the employee said.

First Deputy Commissioner for Parks Liam Kavanagh has also been the Acting Parks Commissioner since Ms. White's departure. 

"We have a great operating budget,"  Veronica White embarrassingly testified In September,  a view consistently shared by Adrain Benepe who was fond of the calling the funding  "robust." 

Ms. White was out on sick leave for several months this spring. 

When her appointment was announced she called the position, "truly the most important and great job that I could ever hope to have."  

When asked what her top priorities and goals were she stressed the need to make sure that all parks in in all boroughs were maintained. 

"As we increase the parkland obviously we have to increase the resources available public and private - especially the private - for each of these parks we are creating as well as the existing parks," she said emphasizing the reliance on private funds.  

Former long-time Parks head Henry Stern complained about her lack of parks background  at the time and compared the situation to Schools Chancellor Catherine Black. 

Veronica applied for the Parks Commissioner job once before,  shortly after Mayor Bloomberg was elected in 2001. 

Before joining the Parks Department White worked for Bloomberg as the first executive director of the mayor's anti-poverty Center for Economic Opportunity a program he created in 2006 that reportedly used $100 million annually in public and private funds.

White is perhaps best known for her controversial anti-poverty ventures, including an initiative to pay poor people to attend parent-teacher conferences and a program to take kids to the dentist.

Ms. White began at Parks' on August 30, 2012 after the position was vacated by Adrain Benepe who held the job from February 4, 2002 to August 29, 2012.

Benepe finally wore out his welcome from the Bloomberg administration and was summarily told to find employment elsewhere according to several City sources.

Benepe landed a job at The Trust for Public Land,  a partner organization in the Mayor's PLANYC Schoolyards To Playgrounds Initiative.  

It is unclear if Mr. Benepe received a waiver from the Mayoral appointed Conflict of Interest Board before joining the organization.  

Community Garden Supporters Seek Greater Protections

Community garden activists rally on the steps of City Hall today before a City Council Committee on Parks & Recreation oversight hearing seeking greater protections. This will be the first public hearing since the City adopted its controversial new community garden rules in September. As a concession, the administration announced today that community gardens registered and licensed by the Parks Department will be good for four years instead of two. (Video capture: NY1 news)

Testifying today about the new rules adopted by the city, Bloomberg operative Larry Scott Blackmon, now a Deputy Commissioner for the Parks Department said, "There were those who spread fears that these rules were written as a means to further development. That is not and has never been our intent."

City Wide

Earlier this year, the city took steps to preserve hundreds of community gardens. But some critics say those protections didn't go far enough. NY1's Bobby Cuza filed the following report.

Even activists say the Bloomberg administration has been a friend when it comes to protecting the city's 600 community gardens. But they worry what could happen under a different mayor, one like Rudy Giuliani, who once sought to auction off gardens to developers.

"Some of it is flashing back to a previous administration that wasn’t supportive. And worrying that if an administration in the future is also not supportive, that they’re gonna have to fight for the future of their gardens all over again," said Steven Frillmann of Green Guerillas.

In September, the city’s Parks Department issued new regulations that protect community gardens so long as they're in good standing. But critics, some of whom rallied at City Hall Monday, say they want more permanent protection. They say the process for finding a garden in default is vague and worry it could lead to gardens being taken over by developers.

"We want to make sure that the city, if that’s the intent, that if there’s a problem with garden members, that the garden members are removed, but the garden itself remains intact," said Karen Washington of the New York City Community Garden Coalition.

Read/View More:

Community Garden Advocates Seek Greater Protections

NY 1 News - November 29, 2010 - By Bobby Cuza

Parks Announces Extension Of Community Garden License Agreements

City of New York/Parks & Recreation - Press Release - November 29, 2010

No Permanent Protections For Community Gardens Under New NYC Rules

A Walk In The Park - September 16, 2010

Bloomberg Campaign Operative Hired as Deputy Parks Commissioner

A Walk In The Park - January 11, 2010

Bloomberg Campaign Operative Hired as Deputy Parks Commissioner

Larry Scott Blackmon, a 35-year-old political operative whose recent employment included two consecutive stints in Bloomberg's re-election campaigns,  has landed a choice job in the green empire. Bloomberg appointed him to serve as a Deputy Parks Commissioner making $169,560 a year according to the NY Post —thirty three thousand dollars less than Parks Commissioner Benepe. The DPR announced internally last week that he will be supervising long-time Assistant Parks Commissioner Jack T. Linn and working on community outreach.  Mr. Linn,  who has decades of experience in the agency will be making thirty grand less than Mr. Blackmon.  It pays to be connected.

A Walk in the Park could find no relevant career experience in the world of public parks for Mr. Blackmon, who reportedly specializes in African-American outreach.  However he was mentioned in the NY Times earlier this year for his antics during the Bloomberg campaign which left one Harlem State Assemblymember  "a bit startled," according to the paper.

Mr. Blackmon was dispatched to Albany to sway Keith L. T. Wright into supporting Bloomberg.  

According to the account, Assemblyman Keith L. T. Wright, a Harlem lawmaker,  long ago pledged to support a fellow African-American,  William C. Thompson Jr.,  in the mayoral election. But that did not stop two aides to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg from traveling 150 miles from Manhattan to Albany to seek Mr. Wright’s endorsement for the mayor a few weeks ago.

“They must have really wanted it,” Mr. Wright said, a bit startled by the effort. “They double-teamed me.”

Mr. Blackmon also shows up in a 2008 Village Voice piece which commented on his job over at the Department of Small Business Services.

Mike campaigners' tailor-made jobs

Tight fiscal times haven't stopped Mayor Bloomberg from finding openings in city government for his campaign troops, The NY Post has learned.

Some of the ex-campaign workers will be returning to jobs they left in City Hall and at city agencies.

But others will be landing in entirely new positions created just for them.

"There will be an increase in the total numbers of slots in the mayor's office," said the insider.

Bloomberg had earlier pledged to cut his own office payroll, which now has 450 people.

The new hires come just weeks before the mayor releases his plan for closing a $4.1 billion deficit -- with layoffs possible.

The campaigners landing on the city payroll include:

Larry Blackmon, who quit as chief of staff at the Department of Small Business Services to become a $144,000-a-year campaign coordinator in the African-American community.

He's now becoming a $169,560 deputy parks commissioner.

Read more: 

Mike campaigners' tailor-made jobs

NY Post  - January 10, 2009 -  By David Seifman

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/mike_campaigners_tailor_made_jobs_3MArYcZC17dnfmbSNMjABL

UPDATE:

Amid Budget Worries, Mayor Finds Jobs for Campaign Staff

New York Times - January 26, 2010 - By Michael Barbaro