At the Cary Leeds Center for Tennis & Learning, residents from the Bronx and Staten Island gathered at an event which taught local residents how to advocate for more parks and green spaces in their neighborhoods.
Events like these emphasize the ways residents can be a part of the solution regarding environmental injustice and quality of life. The Bronx has a complex relationship with green spaces.
There’s historically been a lack of access to the waterfront, zoning practices that build more housing which limits the use of and access to green spaces and poor air quality. This is a result of large infrastructure projects, redlining, limited funding and uneven distribution of parks despite the borough having the most green spaces.
Community partners and representatives from the New York City Civic Engagement Commission (CEC), an organization that partners with community-based organizations to increase political engagement; City Parks Foundation, an organization that aims to transform parks; and Loving the Bronx, an organization dedicated to community development; discussed the ways NYC residents could get involved with their community.
The City Parks Foundation offers training and information sessions on budgeting, working with elected officials, fundraising, event planning, beautification, community coaching and grants through their NYC Green Fund program which is open to groups who have annual budgets under $175,000 twice a year.
Anthony Carrión, a community engagement specialist at the NYC CEC, explained that people can use the power of civic engagement to influence change in their own backyard like when he advocated for a budgeting program to help with promoting direct civic engagement. When more people are directly advocating for their neighborhoods, they take control of the decision-making and vote on projects that improve their neighborhoods.
The CEC came out of community members as originally one of three ballot proposals on the 2018 Charter Revision Commission that he voted for. Carrión says people can become active participants through The People’s Money and their local community boards.
The People’s Money, an organization that allows New Yorkers to decide how to spend $4 million of the city budget – approximately $116 billion – was established by the CEC in 2022. There are four phases in the process: idea generation, borough assemblies, voting and project implementation.
As of Oct. 15, New Yorkers as young as 11 years old can submit their ideas on how the money should be spent.
“It could be financial literacy classes for the youth, after school programming, cleanup of parks. It could be food and nutrition workshops, all of these are programs and services,” Carrión said.
Nilka Martell, founder of Loving the Bronx and campaign to Cap the Cross Bronx Expressway, was the community partner spotlight for the event.
“Partnerships for Parks was really instrumental in our journey being civically engaged… Park stewardship is part of being civically engaged.” Martell said. “So what we did was develop a relationship with the park manager, with the supervisor, to really prove to them that we weren’t a bunch of folks that were just going to do this project and then walk away. We really cared about this park.”
According to Martell, what started as a beautification project planting trees and cleaning up debris, turned into improving Virginia Park by planting trees and flowers and cleaning up trash near the Cross Bronx Expressway and the Hugh J. Grant Circle Park adjacent to the Parkchester 6 train.
Martell and 30 volunteers wanted to renovate these parks but there wasn’t a budget, so they continued to host “It’s My Park” events and in 2015, former Mayor Bill De Blasio created a $50 million initiative called “Parks Without Borders” which allowed her group to nominate the two parks that needed fixing up.
Through door-to-door canvassing and collaborating with community boards, the Hugh J. Grant Circle Park and Virginia Park were selected for the Parks Without Borders initiative along with seven other parks in 2016. The award provided $9 million in capital projects to renovate the park and was completed in May 2021.
Basia Nikonorow, a West Harlem resident and local park volunteer, attended the event to learn more about how to get a park in her neighborhood fixed, one she feels has been forgotten about.
“Nothing happens on its own, everything that happens for the good is because somebody fought for it and that’s what it takes,” Nikonorow said. “It takes not just one person, but a whole group of people to be that squeaky wheel. And that’s how things get done.”
As an active community member, Nikonorow is organizing an “It’s My Park Day” at the Montefiore Square park in Hamilton Heights at the end of October because of littering and maintaining local green spaces .
“We’ll be planting flower bulbs, doing general yard work, cleaning up any debris and litter and vandalism, graffiti or leftover posters from trash cans and any other sign posts that kind of thing. And bringing the neighborhood together before it gets too cold and building good community spirit,” she said.
Partnership for Parks offers several programs ranging from training to grants, volunteer and employment opportunities on the City Parks Foundation website.
Reach Keke Grant-Floyd at keiwana.grantfloyd19@gmail.com. For more coverage, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!
