By Bob Harris
After two organizing meetings, a coalition of civic, athletic, and conservancy groups in Queens has met in the Overlook in Forest Park and selected volunteers to lead the fledgling organization.
The Queens groups, and similar groups from the other boroughs, are affiliated with PARKS 2001 That organization, headquartered at 355 Lexington Ave., in Manhattan, phone 866-54PARKS or www.parks2001.org, is a citywide campaign to restore, reform and revitalize parks and recreation services in New York City. A contact person is Christine O’Connell.
The Queens Coalition For Parks has defined its goals as regular cleaning and recreation staff for parks, increased park enforcement and more park rangers, increased volunteer programs in every district, staff and resources to provide horticultural and forestry services to every park, dollars generated in parks to stay in parks, and that the parks budget for New York City which is currently at 0.4 percent of the total budget should be raised to 1 percent.
The Queens Coalition for Parks officers selected by the 50 or so community activists at the June 14 meeting were: President — Fred Kress, who is also president of the Rosedale Civic Association, president of the Cornucopia Society and the national Eagle Scout Association. Kress, an insurance broker, can be reached at 718-341-1395 for information on joining and helping.
First vice president — Rocco Lavacca, who is active in the North Bellerose Civic Association, a Warden of Alley Pond Park and active in the Alley Pond Park Pet Lovers.
Second vice president — Jacquelyn Lemon-Denton, who is active in the Baisley Park Civic Association.
Secretary — Barbara Morris of the Rosedale Civic Association, the Cornucopia Society, the Concerned Citizens of Laurelton and a columnist for the Laurelton Times of the TimesLedger Group.
The Coalition currently charges no enrollment fee because supporters of PARKS 2001 have obtained donations from a number of philanthropists who are involved with them and who are concerned about our parks. An organizational outreach checklist and a postcard attached to a brochure are available for groups who wish to join.
The Queens Coalition wants to reach out to city legislators through letter writing, having people sign petitions, individual meetings with officials, and letters to the editor of local newspapers to explain the need. At the meeting it was brought out that even during the Great Depression the parks received 2 percent of the city budget. Also, there are only two parks enforcement workers in all of Queens to keep the parks safe, there are only 23 full-time plumbers for all the parks of New York City, and that the Parks Department workforce has been cut by 70 percent over the past 25 years. This is why the slogan of PARKS 2001 and the Queens Coalition for Parks is “1 % FOR PARKS.”
The Queens Coalition for Parks will continue to meet to evaluate progress, invite more civic activists to join them and to plan further activities. Time is short because budgets are being prepared at this time and candidates for office have to be made aware of the concern o the public for the state of their parks and the need for a full 1 percent of the budget for parks. Incidentally, since many school children use our parks it is important that the children have good parks to play in.
GOOD AND BAD NEWS OF THE WEEK
The good news Fresh Kills has finally closed and the smells and other things coming from the area will no longer bother the residents of Staten Island. The bad news is that the reality of the huge amount of waste generated by the households and factories in New York City must be dealt with. Recently Pennsylvania officials decided to closely check on the safety of tractor-trailer trucks carrying our garbage into Pennsylvania. When trucks were taken out of service the garbage piled up.
Regrettably, the city has never taken recycling seriously. When the people wash out their cans and bottles and don’t put paper with food on it into the paper waste stream then recycling is clean with no smells. Recycling will pull a lot of material out of the trash stream, which mean less garbage that has to be trucked and sold outside of the city. The bad thing is that the city is really not emphasizing recycling enough.
