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BP candidates talk parks at forum
BY BEN VERDE
Borough presidential hopefuls
discussed the state of
Brooklyn’s greenspaces during
an April 22 virtual forum,
where they laid out their visions
for open spaces and
parks.
The forum, organized by
the Brooklyn Parks and Open
Spaces Coalition and hosted by
community journalist Brian
Vines, covered a wide range of
topics related to parks and public
spaces, including creating
equity across the park system,
the relationship between development
and open spaces, and
fully funding the city’s Parks
Department.
The race to replace longstanding
BP Eric Adams comes
as New York City continues to
grapple with the COVID-19
pandemic and as parks and
open spaces are more critical to
the physical and mental health
of New Yorkers than ever before.
Parks across the city are
seeing a record usage as residents
fl ock to them for refuge
— and it’s more apparent than
ever which neighborhoods are
in need of more green.
Still, in 2020, the historically
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underfunded Parks Department
suffered a budget cut
of $84 million, accounting for 14
percent of its budget — the second
highest of any city agency.
“We would expect that the
next Brooklyn borough president
is fully aware that parks
are an essential infrastructure
and is committed to leading
and supporting efforts to fund
this important local treasure
in all communities, but particularly
those in marginalized
and high needs neighborhoods,”
said Marlene Pantin,
chair of the Brooklyn Parks
and Open Space Committee.
On equity in the parks
system
The topic of equity in the
parks network came up several
times throughout the forum,
with many candidates pledging
to fi ght for more green spaces
for underserved communities
throughout the borough.
Councilmember Antonio
Reynoso accused Mayor Bill de
Blasio and those currently in
power of only seeking to serve
civically engaged communities
who would reward them
in turn with votes when they
sought a higher offi ce.
“The problem that we have
now is an equity issue,” said
the north Brooklyn pol, who
pledged to work for and with
communities who may not
have the free time to be hypercivically
engaged, to ensure
they benefi t from parks and
open spaces. “The mayor and a
lot of the elected offi cials spend
most of their time talking and
working for people that have a
lot of political capital.”
Bedford-Stuyvesant Councilmember
Robert Cornegy
said he would utilize the “threelegged
stool” of the borough
president’s offi ce to combine
land-use decisions and capital
funding to help better serve underprivileged
communities.
“Bedford-Stuyvesant has
characteristically been an underserved
community,” Cornegy
said. “We invested, in
spite of that.”
Balancing needs
There is a dire need for
both open space and affordable
housing in New York, yet
the two are often pitted against
each other, as exemplifi ed by
the embattled Gowanus Green
and the fi ght over Elizabeth
Street Garden in Manhattan.
Borough president candidates
weighed in on ways
they would increase both the
borough’s affordable housing
stock and its greenspace.
Trisha Ocana, a member
of Community Board 17, said
her administration would follow
projects that pass through
Brooklyn Borough Hall during
the land use process,
and ensure that they follow
through on any promises such
as public greenspace.
Reynoso pitched a version of
“comprehensive planning” — a
style of city planning that centers
around the goals and needs
of specifi c communities and
builds according to them, rather
than the developer-focused Uniform
Land Use Review Process.
Combating climate
change at the local level
Candidates pitched their
plans to use the offi ce of the borough
president — which comes
with a hefty discretionary budget
and the ability to weigh in
on land-use decisions — to combat
climate change and rising
sea levels in the borough.
Both Assemblymember Jo
Anne Simon and former hospital
executive Khari Edwards
cited a desire to see more electric
and hybrid vehicles, with
Edwards zeroing in on the diesel
fuel buses that still run
through poorer neighborhoods.
Simon said she would focus
on transportation issues, the
a contributor to carbon emissions,
and said the borough
needed to focus on ensuring
resilience along its coastline.
“This is a complex issue and
we really need to focus on resilience,”
she said.
This article has been edited
for brevity. For more, visit BrooklynPaper.
com or PoliticsNY.com.
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Bill de Blasio
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Dave A. Chokshi, MD, MSc
Commissioner
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