Contact: Colleen Roche (212) 788-2958 or Kim Serafin (212) 788-2958
The Mayor's remarks follow:
Good Afternoon. Earlier this week, I delivered the annual State of the City Address, and in keeping with tradition, today, we address the State of our City's parks.
And symbolically, I think the juxtaposition of these two major speeches is quite significant and appropriate, because our parks are a microcosm of our City. All that is the best in New York can also be found in our parks.
Safety and Cleanliness
The dramatic decrease in violent crime, which has made New York just about the safest large city in America, has also made our parks and public spaces much safer for our children and for our citizens.
Since 1993, the safety of our parks has improved as much, if not more dramatically than safety in New York City as a whole. And over the same period of time, graffiti in our parks has been reduced from 27 percent unacceptable to 3 percent.
In State of the City, I discussed the historic decline in violence in two city neighborhoods, one in the Bronx, around Yankee Stadium, and the other in East New York.
Today, I thought it would be interesting to check park cleanliness in the same two neighborhoods. In the Bronx, Community Board Four, parks cleanliness ratings have improved 63 percent, with 88 percent of parks rated acceptably clean.
And in East New York, Community Board Five, parks cleanliness has improved 21 percent, with a 94 percent parks rated acceptably clean.
Just as the Police Department improved safety in neighborhoods like these through daily crime statistics as part of the Compstat Program, Parks has now increased inspections from four times a year to 26 times a year and uses the information from these inspections to give special attention to communities that need it. Our Borough Commissioners are held accountable for the results.
This information also helps us to better deploy our manpower, which has been significantly increased through the workfare program.
Workfare Program
No agency has embraced the Workfare Program and used it more effectively than Parks. There are approximately 7,000 Workfare participants currently assigned to the Parks Department.
These workers have been a big help in keeping our parks cleaner, but beyond cleanliness, our parks are also in better structural condition. The overall condition rating of our parks has improved 43 percent between the summer of 1993 and the summer of 1996.
Capital Projects
In the past, hundreds of millions of dollars sat unused, but we have now successfully accelerated our capital projects.
In FY 1994, New York City spent $51 million on Capital Expenses, by FY '95 that number had grown to $92 million, in FY '96 we spent more than $154 million on Capital Projects, and projected expenditures for FY '97 are at $172 million.
But numbers are often abstract. What these dollars represent are swing sets, slides, basketball courts, and playing fields. What these dollars represent are parks like Luis R. Lopez Park on Oder Avenue and Palma Drive in Staten Island. Last year, I was joined by Public Officials, Police Officers, members and friends of the Lopez family for the opening of this totally renovated facility.
That community now has a park with new basketball courts, play equipment, a new drainage system, a water supply, security lighting and new fences and trees.
These dollars represent parks like the New Rockaway Roller Hockey Rink in Queens, at Beach 109th Street and Shore Front Parkway. Residents of the Rockaway Peninsula now have a top-notch facility for Roller Hockey, with bleachers, wood and steel benches, new landscaping and new trees. These are just two examples of the more than 100 Capital Projects completed in parks throughout our City during FY '96.
And in all areas of improvement from safety to cleanliness to Capital Projects, it has not only been a higher standard of excellence that has turned our parks around, but also the partnership of our communities.
Public-Private Partnerships
Every one is familiar with the Central Park Conservancy and the terrific job they've done rejuvenating Central Park, but partnerships like the Conservancy exist in parks and communities throughout our City.
In January 1995, Commissioner Stern launched "Partnerships for Parks," which is funded by the City and The City Parks Foundation. The goal is to nurture support and strengthen local groups, so that every park and playground enjoy the same organized community support that has revitalized Central Park and Prospect Park.
Groups like the Bayridge Parks and Waterfront Council, which initiated its efforts with 81 straight days of spruce-up projects involving thousands of volunteers.
And groups like the Seton Falls Park Preservation Coalition and the Friends of St. Nicholas Park -- both of these organizations have successfully enlisted hundreds of volunteers to paint, pickup and plant, making their parks cleaner and safer.
There are now more than 200 "Friends of the Park" groups throughout the City that are rebuilding and rejuvenating our City's Parks. And also hundreds of other groups that have transformed rubble strewn lots into community gardens.
These groups not only challenge government to do better, they challenge their neighbors to get more involved in the renewal of civic pride.
The parks that do best -- those that thrive rather than merely survive -- are those with an active community that cares about them.
Park Land Acquisition
And even as we work to improve our parks today, we are committed to growing and expanding City park land even further to protect our environment and to provide beautiful places for our citizens in the future.
Since January 1994, we have acquired a total of 746 new acres. This administration has nearly doubled the number of acres acquired in the four years before I took office.
So in the last three years, we have seen our parks become, safer and cleaner thanks to the contributions of Workfare participants and by the partnership of groups throughout New York.
We are providing children and adults in every borough with new recreational opportunities through a dramatically improved Capital Construction Program.
And our acquisitions have beautified neighborhoods and protected our environment. All in all, I would say the state of the Parks, like the state of the City, has been turned around.
New York is back, and our parks are back as the vital centers of our neighborhoods, communities and boroughs.