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NORTH AMERICAN Newsline JANUARY 19, 2024 | The Indian Eye 20

NYC MAYOR ADAMS RESTORES

FUNDING TO KEEP CITY STREETS

AND PARKS CLEAN, FIGHT RATS

Funding Will Maintain 23,000 Litter Baskets Across City and Parks Opportunity Program,

Offering Paid Opportunities and Training to Thousands of Low-Income New Yorkers

“For 30 years, the Parks Oppor-
OUR BUREAU
tunity Program has been instrumen-
NEW YORK, NY tal in placing thousands of the most
vulnerable New Yorkers into full
ew York City Mayor Eric Ad- time-employment,” said NYC Parks
ams on Thursday announced
Nthat thanks to measures the Commissioner Sue Donoghue.
city has implemented to responsibly
manage the city’s budget and strate- “We are incredibly grateful for
gically navigate significant fiscal chal- the commitment from this ad-
lenges, funding will be restored to
maintain 23,000 New York City De- ministration to continue on this
partment of Sanitation (DSNY) litter legacy of providing access to
baskets and allow DSNY to contin-
ue installing its Litter Basket of the green jobs and job training.”
Future — one of TIME Magazine’s
Best Inventions of 2023. Additionally, In August 2023, Mayor Adams
Mayor Adams announced that fund- laid out projections estimating the
ing will be permanently restored for cost of the asylum seeker crisis to
the New York City Department of grow to more than $12 billion over
Parks and Recreation (NYC Parks) three fiscal years — between FY23
and New York City Department of and FY25 — if circumstances did not
Social Services’ (DSS) Parks Oppor- change. From April 2022 through
tunity Program (POP), which gives gap in Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 due to implementing creative policies going December 2023, the city has already
thousands of low-income New York- federal COVID-19 stimulus funding forward. And while we can celebrate spent an estimated $3.5 billion on
ers six-month paid opportunities and drying up, expenses from labor con- this good news today, we still have a shelter and services for over 168,500
training programs each year. POP tracts this administration inherited massive budget gap to fill in the next individuals who came through the
workers help maintain and operate being unresolved for years, and the fiscal year and need more support city’s intake center during that time-
New York City parks and facilities, growing costs of the asylum seek- from our state and federal partners frame.
and the training they receive through er crisis — steps that have included going forward.” With sunsetting COVID-19
the program prepares them for full- helping put migrants on the path to “The strength and character of stimulus funding, slowing tax rev-
time NYC Parks job opportunities. self-sufficiency and reducing per-di- our city is derived from our public enue growth, expenses from labor
The funding restorations build em costs for migrants. The resto- spaces — our parks, pools, recre- contracts this administration inher-
on successful efforts by the Adams rations will be reflected in the FY25 ation centers, clean streets, and pla- ited being unresolved for years, and
administration to keep city streets Preliminary Budget, which will be zas. They are our oasis, away from a lack of significant state or federal
and public spaces clean for all New presented next Tuesday, at the City our apartments and desks, where the government action on the asylum
Yorkers to enjoy — with efforts to Charter deadline. collective experience and magic of seeker crisis, Mayor Adams took ac-
containerize 100 percent of the city’s “When we came into office, we our city happens,” said Deputy May- tion — announcing a 5 percent Pro-
garbage, drastically reduce the time made it clear: out with the mean or for Operations Meera Joshi. “We gram to Eliminate the Gap (PEG)
trash bags sit on city streets, and streets and in with the clean streets, are grateful to all those who called on city-funded spending for all city
target hot spots for cleaning and rat and today’s restoration into pro- and wrote and made their priorities agencies with plans for additional
mitigation within city parks during grams at the Sanitation Department known. Together, we will deliver a rounds of PEGs in the Preliminary
evening hours. and the Parks Department help us cleaner, greener New York.” and Executive Budgets.
As a result, the administration is continue to make the right invest- “There are 23,000 DSNY litter And, through strong fiscal man-
also winning its “War on Rats,” with ments in our ‘Trash Revolution,’” baskets across the city,” said DSNY agement that included implement-
rat sighting complaints down 20 per- said Mayor Adams. Commissioner Jessica Tisch. “While ing measures to reduce household
cent in 2023 in rat mitigation zones, “We’re building a city where we were prepared to remove 40 per- per-diem costs and helping put mi-
where the administration is deploy- New Yorkers won’t have to dodge cent of them — over 9,000 baskets — grants on the path to self-sufficiency,
ing targeted and effective rat-reduc- rats or tiptoe around mountains in order to meet the crisis, this would the city will achieve a reduction in
tion strategies. The restorations also of smelly black bags anymore, but have had a profound impact on the city-funded asylum seeker spend-
follow targeted and effective steps these measured and reasonable res- cleanliness of our neighborhoods, ing on the migrant crisis, which will
taken by the Adams administration torations can only be made by mak- and we are grateful to instead be able be detailed in the FY25 Preliminary
in the face of a $7 billion budget ing the right financial decisions and to continue to ‘Get Stuff Clean.’” Budget.

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