The New York City Council Committee on Parks and Recreation will hold an Oversight Hearing on the Department of Parks and Recreation's Lifeguard Program. As many of you know, there is a shortage of lifeguards to cover the City's 14 miles of beaches. This is a great opportunity to provide recommendations to ensure that everyone has a positive beach experience.
HEARING DETAILS:
WHEN: Tuesday, November 13th at 10:00am
WHERE: 16th Floor Hearing Room, 250 Broadway
Please bring 20 copies of testimony if you plan to testify in person.
With the economy cooling and showing signs of a possible recession, Mayor Bloomberg announced a hiring freeze for all city agencies. In addition, the Mayor asked agencies to cut their spending by 2.5% this year and 5% next year. Commissioners have been asked to submit their proposals for reducing spending by the end of November. This will affect the Parks Department upcoming initiatives including PlaNYC. Hopefully, Wall Street revenues for the fourth quarter will be higher than projected and the cuts will be short lived.
Over 300,000 daffodil bulbs distributed by New Yorkers for Parks and the Department of Parks and Recreation
This past month, thousands of daffodil bulbs were handed out at Green Markets in Union Square, Prospect Park, Overlook Park, Joyce Kilmer Park, and in Staten Island as part of the Daffodil Project.
We look to distributing even more next fall. Please remember to take a photo in the Spring so we can post the best ones on the website.
And so it ends. Yes, I've been keeping it a secret for a while, but I am leaving New Yorkers for Parks, thus leaving The Dirt. It's been real... dirty? It has been great, and I will miss it. And hopefully someone will want to take over this blog, someday. I'll try to put up a few more posts today for those faithful readers out there. Thank you all for your tips and comments, and for just hanging out here. Happy Holidays.
A judge has dismissed a lawsuit against plans to put a private development in the proposed Brooklyn Bridge Park, calling the plan "not unreasonable." [NYT]
Did anyone catch that Jonathan Safran Foer op-ed about dogs and off leash hours that ran a few days ago in the Times? Don't worry. There are no paragraphs done completely in italics or presented as diary entries. [NYT]
A "big bucks developer" (according to the Daily News... we might have gone with another adjective that starts with an 'e,' ends with an "l," and has a "v" and and "i" in the middle, but hey, that's just us) has "bought up the gritty Brooklyn amusement park" better known as Astroland. As you can see, we're none to happy about it and happened to love it the way it was, rickety rides and all. [NYDN]
We forgot to warn you before we went away for five days to eat too much turkey, but over the next month or so, posts on this here blog will be sporadic, at best. Not because we don't love you, or there's no news to bring you (though park news does slow down as the days get shorter) but because we'll be in and out of a tryptophan-induced state. And we'll also be traveling through some fairly baren Midwestern locales with shoddy wireless connections. So, keep the
coming (or not) and when we finally wake up near a hotspot with full bellies and cranberry stained lips, we'll throw it up here. In the meantime, if there's someone out there who thinks s/he might like to guest blog over the holidays,
of no more than two paragraphs letting us know why. But don't be too upset if we don't write you back right away. Happy holidays.
The 'quote crazy' Post reports that the Parks Department plans to re-open a bridge in the Bronx that has been closed for nearly 40 years. If reopened, the High Bridge would provide pedestrians views of the Harlem River. NY4P's Community Design Program has worked to open-up access to the Harlem River, too. Learn more about the Community Design Program.
