New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams and New York Metropolis Division of Parks & Recreation Commissioner Iris Rodriguez-Rosa.
Michael Appleton/Mayoral Images Workplace
Regardless of all of the rain we’ve been getting not too long ago, summer season simply unofficially started in New York Metropolis with Memorial Day. The times are getting longer and hotter, our seashores are open, and, for the primary time within the metropolis’s recorded historical past, there have been no shootings on the Sunday earlier than Memorial Day — additional proof that our administration’s strategy to retaining New York Metropolis the most secure huge metropolis in America is working. Final week, we kicked off the “We Exterior Summer season,” a sequence of investments, bulletins, and programming throughout the 5 boroughs to make sure New Yorkers have a secure and enjoyable summer season in our parks, playgrounds, and in all places else open air. We’ll proceed to roll out bulletins all through the summer season, however right here’s a few of what we introduced this previous week as we proceed to make New York Metropolis the very best place to lift a household.
We all know that because the climate warms, New Yorkers are anticipating extra out of doors area. However for too many households, inexperienced area is out of attain and too removed from their neighborhoods and communities. That is precisely why we kicked off work final week to rework vacant, deserted heaps into parks and put extra greenspace inside strolling distance of 1000’s of extra New Yorkers who don’t at present have entry to them. We’re beginning in East New York and Cypress Hill in Brooklyn, in addition to Jackson Heights, East Elmhurst, and Corona in Queens, and we are going to broaden from there.
Our “Vacant Heaps to Parks” initiative is a superb instance of presidency working to chop crimson tape and assume creatively about delivering extra inexperienced areas to areas most in want. It additionally builds on the work our administration has executed to broaden entry to parks. Since taking workplace, we’ve added over 86 acres of parkland throughout New York Metropolis, placing tens of 1000’s of extra New Yorkers inside strolling distance of a park.
However we’re not stopping there; as a part of “We Exterior Summer season,” we additionally introduced the completion of a $23 million mission to rework public areas and playgrounds at six NYCHA developments. Not solely will these new public areas serve NYCHA residents, they’ll additionally serve those that dwell within the neighborhoods round them. All of those tasks collectively have helped improve the whole share of New Yorkers now inside a 10-minute stroll of a park to greater than 84 precent.
We all know we additionally want to provide our younger folks stimulating actions for the summer season months when they’re out of faculty. We have to attain them earlier than they fall into the rivers of violence, as a result of by the point somebody has a gun of their hand, it’s usually too late. That’s why we introduced $13 million in everlasting funding to assist at-risk youth, justice-involved New Yorkers, and other people dwelling in neighborhoods with excessive charges of violence. And for the second straight summer season, we’re investing $2 million to supply prolonged hours at choose Beacon, Cornerstone, and Saturday Night time Lights packages, particularly in NYPD precincts with the best ranges of gun violence. These packages give our children a secure place to collect and thrive.
We’re moreover making certain our younger folks have on-ramps to success proper from the beginning by way of our Summer season Rising program that has supported a file 100,000 summer season job alternatives yearly for younger folks. We all know that if we put money into our younger folks in the course of the summer season months and provides them alternate options, we are able to hold them secure and on the appropriate path.
Lastly, we’re making the world’s most iconic inexperienced area even safer! Central Park is New York Metropolis’s yard however points like unlawful merchandising, overflowing trash, extreme noise, substance use, and extra have continued for a lot too lengthy, and so they usually spike in the summertime months and have to be addressed. This previous week, we introduced the “Central Park Neighborhood Hyperlink,” a multi-agency response geared toward addressing public security and bettering the standard of life in and round Central Park.
We all know that New Yorkers and vacationers are fed up with quality-of-life issues, and I wish to be clear, our administration doesn’t tolerate an environment the place something goes. We prioritize working hand-in-hand with communities to maintain our neighborhoods secure, clear, and cozy so that you could take pleasure in summer season within the best metropolis on the earth. That is simply the beginning of the “We Exterior Summer season,” and because the climate heats up, we’ll hold sharing extra methods we’re working to ship a secure and enjoyable summer season for all.
