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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Saskia Haegens, Organizer from Vanderbilt Avenue Open Street on Open Streets Program Funding
5:52:33
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116 sec
Saskia Haegens, an organizer of the Vanderbilt Avenue Open Street in Brooklyn, testified about the need for full funding of the Open Streets program. They highlighted the benefits of Open Streets and emphasized that the current funding level is insufficient, relying heavily on volunteer labor and local fundraising.
- Requested $48 million over the next three years to fully fund the Open Streets program
- Highlighted the inequitable distribution of Open Streets due to reliance on volunteer capacity
- Stressed the need for proper staffing and infrastructure upgrades instead of temporary equipment
Saskia Haegens
5:52:33
Thank you.
5:52:34
My name is Saskia Ahans, and I am one of the organizers of the Vanderbilt Avenue Open Street in Brooklyn.
5:52:40
I testified in March to urge the council to fully fund the Open Streets program.
5:52:44
You then heard from myself and other organizers about the great benefits of OpenStreet, allowing communities to transform our streets, creating more public open space, boosting local business, creating space for kids to play, opportunities for neighbors to connect and making our streets safer and greener.
5:53:02
Now that the OpenStreet season has started again, I want to talk a bit more about how we make this happen and why the current funding level is not sufficient.
5:53:11
As soon as we restarted Vanderbilt OpenStreet this month, we saw hundreds of people enjoying the six blocks of public space that we create with just barriers and cones.
5:53:21
This leads to businesses driving, kids running around, local bands playing, skate and bike lessons, a blood drive, and so much more.
5:53:28
But all this relies on unpaid volunteer labor by people such as myself.
5:53:33
The fund funding level is only sufficient because volunteers spend countless hours on the city program, and that's not sustainable.
5:53:40
On Vanderbilt, we had to fundraise to buy cones, something we need for safe operations, but DOT could not provide them.
5:53:48
The program needs to be fully funded so that it can be properly staffed and so that we can move to the next phase of infrastructure and street redesign instead of relying on temporary equipment.
5:54:00
The open streets probably need to be properly funded so that it's not so reliant on volunteers and local fundraising.
5:54:07
That's unsustainable for us, but also entirely impossible neighborhoods that do not have that capacity leading to a very inequitable distribution of OpenStreet.
5:54:17
I'm going to end by repeating our request.
5:54:19
Please fully fund the OpenStreet program at $48,000,000 over the next three years.
5:54:25
As the controller said, that's a bargain if you look at what you get in return.
5:54:29
Thank you.