Lower Manhattan resident Rosa Chang recently submitted an idea to reopen the Brooklyn Banks park to the New York City Council on Participatory Budgeting and it's been circulating around both the skate and PK communities.
So first off what is "Participatory Budgeting"? It is described as follows;
community members - like you - directly decide how to spend at least $1,000,000 of the public budget in participating Council Districts
Sounds too good to be true..... that's because it kind of is. In practice these projects suggested by community members could just as easily be ignored all together rather then picked up by a budget delegate, but just in case we're still advocating for the local PK community to get in there and have a say. So how does participatory budgeting work?
If you have an idea about how things could work better in your community, share it on the map. Check out the guidelines to see what ideas can be funded.
After you submit your idea on this Idea Collection Map, your idea will be given to community volunteers, called Budget Delegates. Budget Delegates work in your district to turn ideas into real proposals for a ballot, with input from city agencies. These proposals will be up for a community-wide vote in the spring.
The Banks was a beloved park and home to the first ever organized outdoor Parkour Classes in America, hosted by NYParkour.com. Many would love to see it revived and restored to its former glory as apposed to the sparsely used construction parking lot it's currently being wasted as. It was supposed to reopen in 2014, over 6 years ago, and no one knows why it's been held up for so long, especially during Covid-19, when the need for parks and outdoor space is at an all time high, but we hope that letting our voices be heard in forums like this and the PETITION sent around earlier in 2020 can push things in the direction of making that happen.
For more info and to join in on the discussion you can visit the PARTICIPATORY BUDGETING PAGE for the Brooklyn banks. And take a look at last years PETITION while your at it, their almost at their goal of 50,000 signatures.
