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Q&A
Discussion on proposed legislation and Parks Department's response
0:35:55
·
135 sec
Council Member Krishnan and Matt Drury from the Parks Department discuss the department's opposition to the proposed bills and potential for collaboration between agencies.
- Parks Department clarifies their opposition is technical in nature, related to jurisdiction issues
- Discussion on the need for creative approaches to expand access to public spaces
- Emphasis on the importance of interagency collaboration, particularly between Parks and DOE
Shekar Krishnan
0:35:55
Let's start with the bills themselves, which I think are really good bills.
0:35:59
I have to say it is disappointing to to hear the Parks Department oppose both bills.
0:36:07
And and I do understand the capacity and resource constraints as we fight to increase the funding for the Parks Department.
0:36:15
Would hope the administration would do so too.
0:36:17
But the truth is we just can't let those kinds of constraints get in the way of doing more for New Yorkers and expanding access.
0:36:26
The needs are just too urgent.
0:36:29
The rec centers, the playgrounds, the fields, both can be oversubscribed or underused because during cold weather it's just not possible to use them.
0:36:40
And as council member Brewer mentioned, you have readily available public spaces that I'd see it as well in my own district too that are just off limits for access year round outside of school hours and outside of the students who use them.
0:36:53
So we've got a lot we're working with that has potential, which is why, despite the capacity constraints, we've got to get real creative in finding ways to achieve the intent of the legislation, of all the different pieces of legislation.
0:37:08
So my first question is about, when we think about our playgrounds outside of the JOP, the Jointly Operative Programs, what kinds of conversations are happening with DOE and Parks about working together to open up more school playgrounds?
0:37:24
Are those conversations happening?
0:37:26
What is the status of them?
0:37:27
How can we expand out beyond simply the JOP program?
Matt Drury
0:37:31
Yeah.
0:37:31
I appreciate that, Chair.
0:37:33
And then just to clarify, we oppose both of those bills as they're currently drafted.
0:37:38
And to be clear, our opposition and concerns are largely technical in nature.
0:37:41
Are the bills, as they're currently structured, place our agency and task us with crafting a strategic plan for properties that wouldn't be under our jurisdiction.
0:37:49
So it just raises having said that, we are obviously open to the conversation, open to partnerships.
0:37:54
There's a lot of creative ways to explore.
0:37:56
We already joined in interagency efforts to explore the best use of public facilities in a variety of different ways.
0:38:02
And there's plenty of ways to envision how that could happen.
0:38:04
So just to be very clear, we're certainly appreciative of the goals and I
Shekar Krishnan
0:38:08
appreciate clarification, yeah.
Matt Drury
0:38:10
Having said that, yeah, we work very closely with NYC Schools on what is now constituted as the Schoolyard to Playground program, largely from our end that consists of providing technical analysis and information that identify specific sites that could benefit, namely if it's serving property that would expand access to folks that don't currently live within what we call a walk to a park, which is sort of the metric, again, noted in the the city has a goal of 85% of all New Yorkers living within Wachita Park.