Park advocates are ramping up stress on Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani to shortly get to work on his promise to earmark 1% of town authorities’s finances for spending on New York Metropolis public parks.
New Yorkers for Parks and the Play Honest for Parks Coalition, grassroots organizations which have lengthy advocated for rising metropolis parks funding, are set to this week roll out a coverage blueprint that they’re urging Mamdani to behave on in his first 100 days as mayor.
On the high of the record is a plea for Mamdani’s first metropolis finances proposal, due on the finish of January, to incorporate a large enough parks funding improve for town to achieve the 1% threshold inside his first time period.
The $688 million the Parks Division is at present allotted constitutes about 0.6% of town authorities’s complete finances.
Adam Ganser, govt director of New Yorkers for Parks, mentioned that bumping funding instantly as much as the 1% benchmark isn’t life like. However Ganser mentioned his coalition hopes Mamdani’s first metropolis finances bid each consists of some instant will increase and lays out a transparent path for learn how to get to the 1% degree through extra funding hikes in subsequent years.
“Mayor-elect Mamdani now has the chance to reset the city’s priorities and prove on day one that parks are essential infrastructure, especially for working families,” Ganser mentioned.
A rep for Mamdani, who’s set to be sworn in as mayor Jan. 1, didn’t return a request for touch upon the parks finances demand.
Mamdani most lately affirmed his 1% parks finances dedication in the course of the remaining mayoral election debate in October.
January’s preliminary blueprint is step one within the budgetary course of, which includes the mayor’s group and the Metropolis Council negotiating for months earlier than they need to provide you with a remaining spending plans for all metropolis authorities businesses by the July 1 begin of the 2027 fiscal yr.
Council Parks Committee Chairman Shekar Krishnan mentioned he agrees with Ganser’s request for Mamdani’s preliminary finances. “I think it would be a great signal for the mayor-elect to send,” he mentioned.
Moreover the 1% budgetary pledge, the parks advocates’ blueprint urges Mamdani to, amongst different actions, finish a hiring freeze on the Parks Division enacted by Adams and order repairs at each closed public park toilet inside 100 days.
