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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Merritt Birnbaum, President and CEO of Riverside Park Conservancy
3:12:10
ยท
3 min
Merritt Birnbaum, President and CEO of Riverside Park Conservancy, testifies about the urgent need for increased funding and staffing in New York City parks. She emphasizes the importance of restoring and baselining parks department jobs to ensure clean, green, and safe parks for all New Yorkers.
- Shares examples of understaffing issues in Riverside Park, including insufficient snow removal and closed bathrooms
- Highlights the challenges faced by parks with fewer resources and the reliance on conservancies and volunteers
- Argues that underfunding parks contradicts goals of improving city livability, supporting union jobs, and addressing environmental concerns
Merritt Birnbaum
3:12:10
Thank you, Councilmember Krishna, and thank you for your advocacy and for calling this hearing.
3:12:16
My name is Merritt Birnbaum.
3:12:17
I'm the president and CEO of Riverside Park Conservancy.
3:12:20
We work in partnership with NYC Parks to help care for 400 acres of public parkland spread across six miles from West 50 Ninth up to the George Washington Bridge.
3:12:30
You heard today about our coalition's asks for this budget.
3:12:34
We are asking for people.
3:12:36
We are asking for parkies.
3:12:38
We are not asking for overhead or equipment or even for pay raises.
3:12:43
We are just asking that you put back the funding for the jobs that the city funded in the past so that our parks can be clean and green and safe.
3:12:52
We want seven ninety five good union jobs back, and we want to baseline them so that we can stop fighting for these jobs every year and so that these hardworking New Yorkers will know that they're not expendable and that they can support themselves and their families this year and next year and the after that.
3:13:12
I wanna share a few real stories from one of the largest public parks in the system, a district that serves millions of New Yorkers.
3:13:21
Each year from Midtown to West Harlem to Washington Heights, our district is fortunate that we have a conservancy that contributes several million dollars every year towards its maintenance and operations through our agreement with NYC Parks.
3:13:36
Our struggles are real, but they are nothing compared to the emergencies faced by smaller parks with even fewer resources.
3:13:43
So in each example, you will see a system that is at the breaking point being propped up by extraordinary workers, advocates, and partners like the Playfair members who are all doing our best to keep our parks alive.
3:13:57
And we are all tired, we are all frustrated, and we are all here because we know that this kind of shortsighted budget austerity cannot continue.
3:14:07
A Riverside City Parks worker in West Harlem was moved to tears recently describing what it was like to be the only city worker responsible for snow removal in her section on Sunday morning at 5AM as dozens of staircases and pathways remain to be cleared.
3:14:24
And we had conservancy staff and volunteers there to support her and rally and get the job done.
3:14:30
But that doesn't always happen, and it's possible only in a few parks.
3:14:35
And in many cases, it's never available.
3:14:38
Later that same Sunday, as families were sledding and building snowmen, they tried to access the bathroom at one of our parks.
3:14:43
I know I was there at 02:45 in the afternoon, and it was closed.
3:14:48
This is what happens.
3:14:49
This is what we see every day.
3:14:51
People can't get the most basic services because there are not enough workers in our parks.
3:14:57
This is this is what happens when you don't fund the parks department.
3:14:59
Last summer, all of the New York City parks department's mowers in our park failed at the same time.
3:15:05
Now it's not unusual for mowers to stop working, but there were not enough mowers to go around, so the conservancy had to authorize emergency funding because it would have taken weeks, if not months, for the parks department to fix them.
3:15:22
These are just three examples, one park, of how the city is failing to provide the bare minimum of what it takes to keep the parks clean, green, and safe.
3:15:29
So I'll just close with the question.
3:15:30
At a time when our city is losing population at the highest rate in decades, at a time when we should be focused on making our city more livable, at a time when we need stable union jobs to support working families, and at a time when our very existence is threatened by environmental degradation and climate change, why are we not providing the bare minimum of funding for our city parks?
3:15:51
It's easy.
3:15:52
So parks power New York City.
3:15:54
It's time to invest in our city's budget by powering our parks.