Establishes and empowers a neighborhood parks alliance within the New York city department of parks and recreation

1 Co-sponsor

• Joseph P. Addabbo Jr.

BILL NUMBER:S5689A

Title of bill

An act to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to establishing and empowering a neighborhood parks alliance within the New York city department of parks and recreation

Purpose

This bill would amend the administrative code of the city of New York by establishing a neighborhood parks alliance board and fund to administer additional funding, provided by contributing conservancies, to less well funded recipient parks across the city.

Summary of provisions

Section 1 of the bill amends the administrative code of the city of New York by adding a new Section 18-142.

Subsection 1 establishes a neighborhood parks alliance within the Department of Parks and Recreation.

Subsection 2 sets forth the composition and rules of appointment for the board of directors of the neighborhood parks alliance.

Subsection 3 establishes the powers and duties of the board of directors.

Subsection 4 requires contributing conservancies to contribute twenty percent of their operating funds to the neighborhood parks fund and attend an annual general meeting of the neighborhood alliance board.

Subsection 5 establishes the neighborhood parks fund and the rules regarding its monies.

Subsection 6 establishes definitions for the purposes of the new Section 18-142.

Section 2 sets forth the effective date.

Justification

In a city as dense and expensive as New York, parks are not a luxury or an amenity; they are backyards and vital public places for New Yorkers.

The marquee jewels in the system - for example, Central Park and Prospect Park - are well maintained. But the city provides only 15 percent of Central Park's $45.8 million annual budget, and only about 65 percent of Prospect Park's $12.3 million budget. Instead, large conservancies fill the significant funding gap at these parks and others. At the same time, about 15% of city parks are rated "not acceptable" by the City's own management report -- broken asphalt, trash and graffiti are commonplace.

This bill will level the playing field by establishing a Neighborhood Parks Alliance, which would form partnerships between the

well-financed "contributing conservancies" - those with an operating budget of over five million dollars - with "recipient parks" in need of more money and support.

A contributing conservancy would commit 20 percent of its operating budget to the Neighborhood Parks Alliance Fund, administered by the Neighborhood Parks Alliance board with broad representation under the City Office of Parks and Recreation.

Any park that has been rated a unacceptable ranking by the City Office of Parks and Recreation in the last two years would become a recipient park and be eligible for increased funding.

Effective date

The ninetieth day after it shall have become law.