TESTIMONY
Rosa Chang, Co-Founder of Gotham Park, on the Importance of Funding for Community-Led Public Spaces and Parks
6:42:52
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134 sec
Rosa Chang, co-founder of the grassroots non-profit Gotham Park, testifies on the need for full funding of the Parks Department to support community-led public spaces.
- She highlights Gotham Park as a new community space created in an underserved neighborhood lacking green spaces.
- Chang argues parks are essential for mental, social, and physical health, especially in dense NYC.
- She states parks serve as community living rooms, playgrounds, and social hubs that foster neighborhood connections.
- Chang urges allocating 1% of the budget for parks maintenance to ensure they remain usable and safe.
Rosa Chang
6:42:52
Hello.
6:42:53
Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak today.
6:42:55
My name is Rosa Chang, co founder of Gotham Park.
6:42:59
Grassroots 501c3 created in 2021.
6:43:02
To open, operate, and maintain a new community led public space in a neighborhood that has been historically underinvested and overlooked right outside of city hall.
6:43:12
We are an environmental justice neighborhood with over 47,000 residents within a half mile radius with racial health and structural inequity and historically disadvantaged community.
6:43:23
As our site is anchored by the Brooklyn Bridge, we are actually a DOT plaza and not a park.
6:43:28
But I am here today to support our fellow parties because to anybody in our community as far as they are concerned, we are a part.
6:43:36
And our parks and open spaces are so critically important, especially in New York City.
6:43:42
So important that we fought for and created a new underneath the bridge because we don't have many options for open space as chair Krishnan knows.
6:43:51
We need to make our infrastructure spaces also do double duty for us.
6:43:56
We are asking for a full funding of our parts department to support our parts which are critical to the mental social and physical health and well-being of our community.
6:44:05
New York can be a pretty tough city to live in, but we too to live here because of the diversity and excitement and opportunity and energy of this amazing city of ours.
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But Green Space here is not a given and what little we have is is not usable or safe without maintenance.
6:44:23
And that means we need the essential people who take care of our essential parks.
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Our parks are, our living rooms, our dining rooms, our entertainment spaces, our gym.
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It's where children learn to socialize.
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Where we meet our neighbors and where we build this fragile thing that we call community.
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Parks are essential.
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They are not a luxury.
6:44:43
And we need to take care of them if we expect them to take care of us.
6:44:48
So please support community originated support and lead initiatives like ours, help all of our public spaces to survive and thrive.
6:44:58
We need the 1% for parks.
6:45:00
Thank you for the opportunity to share Gaussian Park with you today.
6:45:03
I'm chair Brennan.
6:45:04
I'm looking forward to our site tour.
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Morgan Monaco, President of the Prospect Park Alliance, on the Vital Role of Parks, Impacts of Budget Cuts, and the Need for Adequate Funding
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Christina Taylor, Deputy Director of the Van Cortlandt Park Alliance, on Underfunded Parks Impacting Basic Maintenance and Programs