TESTIMONY
Keisha Lewis, Teen Employee from the High Line Teen Employment Program, on the Importance of Parks for Community Health and Safety in Low-Income Neighborhoods
6:22:31
·
116 sec
Lewis testifies on the vital role of parks in providing safe spaces for teenagers and promoting mental health in low-income communities like the South Bronx.
- She highlights how parks serve as places for teenagers to gather without fear of violence.
- Lewis argues that the proposed $55 million budget cut and loss of over 600 jobs would drastically impact park maintenance and community access.
- She emphasizes that parks hold deep cultural significance as spaces where families create traditions over generations.
- Lewis advocates for allocating 1% of New York City's budget to parks to ensure low-income communities have clean, well-maintained green spaces.
Keisha Lewis
6:22:31
Good afternoon, committee chairs and the members of the committee.
6:22:34
Thank you for convening the hearing.
6:22:36
My name is Keisha Lewis, and I'm here representing the High Line Teen Employment Program, a program that employs teens across the city and focuses on building work for skills in horticulture, civic engagement, and arts and culture.
6:22:49
I live in the south Bronx where clean well taken care of green spaces are already so scarce to begin with.
6:22:55
The local government fails to realize the importance that parks take in the lives of teenagers who grow up in New York City.
6:23:01
Not only do parks positively affect mental health as a whole, but also a common place for teens to safely hang out without the lingering feeling of being a victim to the violence in the streets.
6:23:12
With the proposed budget cut 55,000,000 and over 600 essential jobs being at risk, it would be a drastic change that will impact millions of New Yorkers.
6:23:20
We'll be taking away this spaces where countless memories and family traditions are embedded into the soil of the space.
6:23:25
Where generations of the generations have seen each other laugh cry and have just grown alongside the Park.
6:23:32
These families demand 1% of the city budget for New York City Parks.
6:23:36
Low income communities deserve to have clean, taking care of safe green spaces.
6:23:41
We deserve it.
6:23:42
Not only are residents being affected by those budget cuts, but we are forgetting those whose lives are being so ported by their employment to the parks department, 600 jobs, thousands of lives.
6:23:53
This could be your mom, brother, cousin, uncle, next door neighbor, just because it does not affect you directly does not mean that it is not affecting those around you.
6:24:01
As a community, we need to understand the magnet to this budget cop proposes.
6:24:05
Since 1980, the budget has increased a 127%, and almost every other department has had an increase of 127% through 165%.
6:24:13
Except the parks department with only 72%.
6:24:16
The parks department cannot afford this budget cut.
6:24:19
They are overworked, understaffed, and under These par workers demand 1% of the city budget for New York City Parks.
6:24:26
Thank you.
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Preeti Sodhi, Senior Director of Community and Government Relations at Friends of the High Line, on the High Line's Economic Impact and Need for Equitable Park Funding
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Angela Padilla, Teen Employee at the High Line Teen Employment Program, on the Need for Increased Funding to Improve Safety and Conditions in New York City Parks