TESTIMONY
Alia Soomro, Deputy Director for New York City Policy at the New York League of Conservation Voters, on Restoring NYC Parks Budget Cuts and Equitable Access to Green Spaces
6:13:18
·
141 sec
Soomro testifies that the Mayor's proposed $55 million budget cut to NYC Parks and loss of over 600 job positions will undermine the agency's ability to maintain safe, clean, green and resilient parks across the city.
- She criticizes the cuts as contradictory to the Mayor's own campaign pledges and the city's climate goals.
- Soomro highlights the many benefits parks provide, including for public health, the economy and environment.
- She notes the inequitable distribution of parks and green spaces due to historic disinvestment and structural racism in environmental justice communities.
- Soomro calls on the Mayor to fully restore the parks budget and establish a path to allocating 1% of the city's budget to parks.
Alia Soomro
6:13:18
Good afternoon.
6:13:19
My name is Aliyah Sumro, and I'm the deputy director for New York City policy at the New York League of Conservation Voters.
6:13:24
Thank you, chair Brandon, chair Christian, and members of the committee on parks and recreation for the opportunity to testify.
6:13:30
My colleague, Jake Patel, will testify for sanitation committee.
6:13:35
NYLCV stands in solidarity with the entire play fair for Parks Coalition and the forest for all coalition.
6:13:41
As members of these 2 coalitions, NYLCV was deeply disappointed that the mayor's executive budget did not restore the funding cuts to NYC Parks.
6:13:50
Despite widespread support from residents, parks, workers, and elected officials throughout the city.
6:13:56
The mayor's proposed budget cut NYC parks by over $55,000,000, and the current hiring freeze will eliminate more than 600 essential agency job lines.
6:14:06
Making it impossible for the agency to ensure parks are safe, clean, green, and resilient across the city.
6:14:12
The mayor's budget cuts represent yet another major setback for an agency that has long suffered from disinvestment.
6:14:19
Most importantly, these budget cuts completely undermine the mayor's prioritization of cleanliness His own campaign pledged to increase funding for the parks department to 1% of the city budget, and it also contradicts the climate goals outlined in the administration's plan NYC getting sustainability done.
6:14:37
Empty words are not enough.
6:14:39
We must fund our park system and get on a path to 1% of the city budget.
6:14:44
I don't need to reiterate how many benefits parks has, including public health, economic, climate, and more.
6:14:50
Despite these benefits, due to historic disinvestment in structural racism, our trees, parks, green spaces, and access to our city's waterfront are not equitably distributed.
6:15:00
Access to parks and tree coverage is on average much lower in environmental justice neighborhoods that are already plagued by adverse health problems and high levels of pollution.
6:15:10
Continued disinvestment in parks will only compound these inequities and make it even worse.
6:15:16
We cannot emphasize this enough.
6:15:18
Parks and green spaces are essential infrastructure.
6:15:21
For too long, our parks workers have been asked to do more with less, allocating 1% of the city budget to parks is not only necessary, but very reasonable.
6:15:30
We call in the mayor of fully restored the parks budget and finally get us on a specific path to 1%.
6:15:37
Thank you for the opportunity to testify.
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Tamar Renaud, New York State Director of Trust for Public Land, on the Importance of Parks and Equitable Access to Outdoor Spaces
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Jake Patel, Special Assistant at the New York League of Conservation Voters, on Restoring Funding for Organic Waste Recycling and Education Programs to Achieve Zero Waste Goals
