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Open Spaces; A Million Daffodil Memorial


The state just released a draft revision of its Open Space Conservation Plan. The plan, which is updated every three years, lists sites that are priorities for the state to acquire and protect. In the past, the state's open space program has been criticized for neglecting low-income minority areas, particularly in New York City.

The draft plan shows some improvement in addressing the need for parks in the inner city, according to New York City open space advocates. But at the same time, opportunities for acquiring open space - in the city as well as upstate - are in jeopardy because the governor and legislature failed to agree on appropriating funds for land acquisition in this year's budget.

The state's open space program has two major sources of funding: the Clean Water/Clean Air Bond Act passed in 1996, and the Environmental Protection Fund, a dedicated trust whose revenues come mostly from the state real estate transfer tax. For open space as well as other environmental programs, New York City has not received funding proportional to its population or tax contributions. Although New York City has 40 percent of the state's population and city transactions account for 44 percent of statewide revenue from the real estate transfer tax, it received just 23 percent of Bond Act/Environmental Protection funds between 1996 and 2000, according to a report by the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance.

Communities of color, which tend to have the lowest amount of parkland per capita as well as the largest number of environmental burdens, have benefited the least. The lion's share of state land acquisition funds spent in New York City went to Staten Island, which has the most open space in the city. Additional money has been committed to the Hudson River and Brooklyn Bridge parks, which border more affluent areas.

The revised plan has taken a few small steps toward rectifying this inequity. It clarifies the definition of what constitutes an "under-served neighborhood," a designation that was supposed to be among the criteria used for selecting sites on the priority list. Several new inner-city projects were added to the list, but many others were not. The plan also recommends setting up a process for evaluating and protecting community gardens as open space and for transferring potential parkland between government agencies. A public workshop and hearing on the plan will be held in Long Island City on November 15. Comments may also be sent by mail or through the Department of Environmental Conservation web site through November 30.

As for funding, open space money from the Bond Act is nearly spent. In late October, Governor Pataki and the legislature deadlocked on how to spend the $150 million in the Environmental Protection Fund, and as a result, no money was appropriated for its various programs, including land acquisition. And now there is talk that the governor intends to raid the fund, though it would go about as far towards closing the state's expected several multi-billion-dollar shortfall as a child's piggy bank would in paying the rent. A state budget department spokesman said he did not have any information on this possibility.

Flowering memorial

Volunteers are planting more than a million daffodil bulbs in public spaces throughout the city in the memory of those lost in the World Trade Center attack and as a symbol of the city's renewal. When spring comes, year after year, a host of golden daffodils will bloom in the city's parks, community gardens, along its highways, and in front of firehouses, police stations, schools, and libraries. The Parks department and a number of citywide and local parks groups have organized more than 7,000 people to plant bulbs at 300 sites. Several companies as well as the City of Rotterdam and the Port Authority have donated bulbs, tools, and supplies. Planting will continue through November 18. For more information, see the web site of Partnership for Parks or call (212) 360-1357.

Anne Schwartz is a freelance writer specializing in environmental issues. Previously, she was the editor of the Audubon Activist, a news journal for environmental action published by the National Audubon Society, and an editor at The New York Botanical Garden.

Campaign Promises For Parks In Light Of 9/11


Voters were planning to go to the polls on September 11 to choose among scores of candidates who had pledged to increase funding for parks. Now the political and financial landscape of the city has been drastically altered. The city is projecting a $1 billion shortfall for this fiscal year, and a $4 billion gap for the next. Even as New Yorkers turn to the parks for community, comfort, and to commemorate the dead, will the promises for parks be another casualty of the terrorist attacks?

Parks supporters saw an opportunity in the 2001 election because of the large turnover of elected officials. After years of frustration with the low level of public funding for city parks - even when the budgets of other city departments were restored during the boom years of the 1990s - they organized to educate the new candidates and win political support for parks. Their coalition, Parks 2001, included block associations, athletic and law enforcement groups, community gardeners, and park advocates as well as prominent civic and business leaders. By the end of the primary season, five of the candidates for mayor and most of the other candidates had pledged to work to commit one percent of the city's budget (more than double the current amount of $160 million) to operating and maintaining the parks. They also promised to distribute resources equitably to all parks, to establish citywide minimum maintenance standards, and to give exclusively to the parks budget the $60 million in fees the city receives from park concessions, which now go into the city's general fund.

After the attacks, however, when the campaign came back into focus, questions were raised about how the candidates would be able to keep their promises on parks. Before the runoff, a New York Times editorial called Fernando Ferrer "borderline irresponsible" for insisting that he still planned to increase the parks budget. Mark Green seized on that phrase as ammunition, using it in the campaign's first negative ad. Neither Green, the Democratic nominee, nor Republican Mike Bloomberg have commented specifically on whether they will uphold their promises to increase funding for parks, although Green has said that many of his previous plans would have to be put off.

Mike Klein, co-campaign manager of Parks 2001, says he remains hopeful that the candidates will be able to honor their commitments to parks. "If they mean what they say about rebuilding, rebirth, revitalizing, you cannot do that without the parks system," he says. "I think New Yorkers will be more aware of just how much they depend on these parks and want them to be equal across the board."

According to Klein, the coalition plans to work with the new mayor, and keep a close watch on the budget process. "This constituency will be much better prepared to have a unified voice on a citywide level, and more clout on a local level. When bad ideas come up in the future, there will be more people organized to speak up."

Bridge Park another victim?

Supporters of the Brooklyn Bridge Park are concerned that plans for the park will be put on hold because of the city's projected budget shortfall, as well as changes in funding priorities from the state. The city had recently promised to spend $10 million to tear down a city-owned warehouse on a key section of the park. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the piers on which much of the park would be built, was to provide more than half of the projected $150 million cost of building the park. Joanne Witty, president of the Brooklyn Bridge Development Corporation, said, "We really don't have much of a reading as to where things stand, other than the fact that we know both the mayor and governor were strongly committed to the park before Sept. 11." A spokeswoman for Governor Pataki, Suzanne Morris, said, "It's something the governor continues to support. But obviously, in the light of what's happened we're taking a look at everything, re-evaluating the entire budget."

What about Governors Island?

Representatives Carolyn Maloney and Jerrold Nadler and the Governors Island Group are calling on Congress to help the recovery efforts in New York City by stopping the sale of Governors Island. Legislation passed in 1997 required the General Services Administration to sell the island, a former Coast Guard base, at fair market value. Before September 11, a state and city plan for public use of the island had stalled, and the federal agency had been preparing to auction the island in the coming fiscal year.

Joined by 15 members of New York's congressional delegation, Maloney and Nadler sent a letter to the chairmen and ranking members of key House committees. The letter notes that the Federal Emergency Management Association, the Coast Guard, and the National Guard have been in discussion with the General Services Administration about using Governors Island to aid the recovery efforts.

Governors Island has also been suggested for temporary commercial and residential use for people displaced from the World Trade Center area. The island has 500,000 square feet of office and commercial space both within and outside its historic district. There are also 1200 residential units, 640 of which are outside the historic district and would be most feasible to use for housing. The island has been well maintained by the General Services Administration since the Coast Guard closed the base in 1996.

In their letter, Maloney and Nadler asked that legislation to repeal the sale include two additional provisions: the ratification of President Clinton's designation of the island's historic forts and surrounding land as a national monument; and a requirement that the city and state fully participate in long-term planning for the island.

Anne Schwartz is a freelance writer specializing in environmental issues. Previously, she was the editor of the Audubon Activist, a news journal for environmental action published by the National Audubon Society, and an editor at The New York Botanical Garden.

Drawn To The Parks


The day after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, it was a classic September day - warm, with golden sunshine, blue above and a breeze that hinted of fall. In one Brooklyn neighborhood, everyone seemed drawn to the park. As if by instinct, they sought the comfort of community and of nature.

People walked quietly by themselves or in pairs. Parents sat on the grass talking while their kids ran around or played ball. "It feels like a town square," someone said.

People talked of the horror they had witnessed from their rooftops and windows. They recounted close calls, what they had done that day, how they had walked home over the bridge.

They shared their grief and fear and shock. They traded information about what people could do to help. As they learned of who in the community were missing and dead, their pain and sadness deepened.

For many people, the meadows, the encircling trees, the sound of the wind in the leaves, provided some spiritual solace.

As the Project for Public Spaces noted on its website, throughout the city, friends and strangers gathered to mourn and comfort one another in the public parks - in Union Square, Washington Square, the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, and undoubtedly wherever else there were neighborhood parks or community gardens.

New York has the reputation of a hurried city, where people are too busy to make connections. But if anything could characterize the aftermath of this unspeakable tragedy, it has been the coming together of neighbors. The events of the past week make us value even more the public places that draw us together, and the parks that give us contact with nature for consolation and contemplation.

Anne Schwartz is a freelance writer specializing in environmental issues. Previously, she was the editor of the Audubon Activist, a news journal for environmental action published by the National Audubon Society, and an editor at The New York Botanical Garden.



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