Another great update from a District 39 Participatory Budgeting committee, this time from neighbor JC Martinez-Sifre, who gives an account of the Parks and Recreation meeting on Councilmember Brad Lander's blog.
One popular recommendation for a project to use some of the $1 million in funding was for a dog run, but as Wylie Goodman of New York Parks and Recreation explained to the group, that's an expensive proposition:
Goodman said that dog runs are no longer about, “just throwing mulch down,” but instead can cost as much as $600,000 between drainage requirements, fencing, and land grading among other considerations. A park bathroom, she said, can exceed a million dollars.
She noted that the Parks and Recreation Department looks for an already established, organized and active group of citizens around a project that could take on a custodial role once it is complete, and she also said that the department likes to know that the community board is overwhelmingly behind a project before it will plant a stake in its fulfillment.
How much does the district want a dog run? Enough to use up most of the budget? And who would be responsible for it? The idea has been floated a few times before, to varying responses--what do you think of having a dog run in the area?
If this ends up in the running, you will have a chance to decide by voting on the Participatory Budgeting items in March.
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