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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Rosamond Fletcher, Executive Director of Fort Greene Park Conservancy
3:16:03
ยท
167 sec
Rosamond Fletcher, Executive Director of Fort Greene Park Conservancy, testifies about the challenges faced by Fort Greene Park due to increased usage and the need for adequate city funding for park staff. She emphasizes that the conservancy's role is to provide complementary services, not to replace city responsibilities.
- Highlights the success of their Green Teen program, which provides environmental education and job pathways for local teens.
- Urges the city to restore the $65 million budget cut and 795 lost staff positions to maintain vital public infrastructure.
- Stresses the importance of not depriving young people of impactful programming due to budget constraints.
Rosamond Fletcher
3:16:03
Good afternoon.
3:16:05
My name is Rosamund Fletcher, I'm executive director of the Fort Greene Park Conservancy.
3:16:09
Thank you, chair Krishnan, for this hearing.
3:16:12
At 30 acres, Fort Green Park is neither large nor small, but it is incredibly well used.
3:16:18
The park is located in the heart of Fort Green and right where everything is expanding in Downtown Brooklyn.
3:16:26
Just north of the park, over 12,000 residents live in public housing.
3:16:31
The density and growth of the area over the last decade has dramatically increased use of the park by people and dogs.
3:16:38
We welcome this use but we have to contend with its impacts like the erosion of the park's hills which requires intensive seasonal lawn rotation and restoration and the overflowing garbage cans which require numerous day and evening pickups.
3:16:53
The park's heavy use demands adequate park staffing.
3:16:58
We filled the staffing gap during the pandemic but our role as a conservancy is not to relieve the city of its responsibility to fund park staff.
3:17:10
Our role is to provide complimentary services.
3:17:13
I want to repeat that.
3:17:15
Our role is not to relieve the city of its responsibility to fund park staff.
3:17:20
So as an example of a complimentary service, our Green Teen program is a paid environmental education and job pathways program for local teens, now in its third year.
3:17:32
The majority of participants live next to the park at Whitman, Ingersoll and Farragut Houses.
3:17:37
1 of our recent graduates shared this with us.
3:17:41
Quote, I just finished my second day of training with the National Park Service kayaking on the Jamaica Bay.
3:17:48
We went to a small island and watched a massive swarm of horseshoe crabs molting.
3:17:54
It was amazing and so rare to see and that's just my second day of work.
3:17:59
I feel so lucky.
3:18:01
I don't think I would be here without my work with the green team and the conservancy.
3:18:06
It has made such a difference.
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So resident association president of Whitman Houses, Ms.
3:18:12
Sharpton has asked that we expand the program to meet the demand for teen opportunities in the neighborhood.
3:18:17
But how can we expand it?
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How can we expand this fourth cohort when we're being asked to fill the gap on park staffing?
3:18:24
So I'm here to say that it's not fair, not fair to deprive our young people of programming that has an impact like this.
3:18:32
So we need the city to step up and do restore the 65,000,000 and the 75 795 lost staff positions.
3:18:43
Parks are vital public infrastructure.
3:18:45
Do not make us take funds from the teens.
3:18:48
Please.
3:18:49
Thank you.
Shekar Krishnan
3:18:50
Thank you so much for your testimony and for all your work.