FROM AVENUE C TO PROSPECT PARK: OPEN SPACES IN DISTRICT 39

Parks and public open spaces are a beautiful part of our community— sites where friendships are formed, protests are organized, and community members celebrate and mourn. While District 39 is home to expansive green spaces like Prospect Park, our district also includes neighborhoods with some of the least park space in the city, like Borough Park and Kensington. Underfunded parks and public spaces leave our community members feeling unsafe, particularly those most vulnerable to harassment, including young women, queer, and trans folks. 

Shahana saw the impact our crumbling parks had on her friends, family, and neighbors, and in 2016, organized to transform a nearby vacant lot in Kensington into the now-vibrant Avenue C Plaza. She worked with her neighbors to transform the abandoned lot into a vibrant open space for the community with seating and beautiful flowers and shrubs. In 2018, Shahana created the Kensington Cultural Council, a neighborhood alliance of community organizations and artists to sustain year-round programming for the plaza: from a feminist Iftar, to interfaith community town halls, to an annual Dia de los Muertos celebration. Shahana has continued to fight for public spaces across our district. As the leader for Participatory Budgeting in District 39, Shahana has helped secure community funding for critical open spaces in our community, including the restoration of the Pagoda in the Prospect Park Ravine, and expanded green roofs for our public libraries.

The COVID-19 pandemic made it clear just how necessary open spaces are for healthy, thriving communities. Every New Yorker should live within five minutes of a green space — whether that is a public park, plaza, or community garden. Shahana will fight to ensure that every constituent in District 39 has access to safe and inclusive public space.

As Council Member, Shahana will...

+ Invest in our parks and public spaces

  • Increase funding to GreenThumb, GrowNYC, and Head Start, so more early childhood education centers and public schools can create community gardens.
  • Encourage government buildings to adopt the Bronx Borough Courthouse model of publicly accessible rooftop gardens to encourage civic engagement.
  • Partner pro-bono urban designers and Community Land Trusts to create and design community gardens with GreenThumb regulations.
  • Support the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Fight for Sunlight campaign against a massive development in Crown Heights, which would block the sun, damaging the BBG and its ecosystem.
  • Commit to the New Yorkers for Parks’ plan to double the NYC Parks Department’s budget, and hire more maintenance staff to keep parks clean, accessible, and functioning with drinking fountains, public restrooms, hand sanitizer, and soap.
  • Invest in more unconventional forms of public spaces (parking lots, long-closed streets, underground passageways, office lobbies, rooftops, underused public buildings) to relieve congestion.
  • Increase funding for the Parks Department to revitalize defunct and expand existing green spaces initiatives. Each member of our district should live within a five-minute walk to a green space, playground, park, or garden.
  • Fund more amenities for dogs such as enclosed dog runs, free dog waste bags, and dog-friendly water fountains.

+ Make NYC a leader in compost collection

  • Invest in a citywide, universal composting program. Composting is an essential tool in the fight across climate change at large, as organic waste in NYC contributed to 3.5% of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2019.
  • Expand composting outreach to communities of color, NYCHA tenants, and restaurants.
  • Work with small businesses to establish composting, and donate edible food to pantries and community fridges in the district.
  • Invest in circular economy initiatives like Materials for the Arts, FabScrap, and support zero-emission community composting projects like BK Rot and other micro-haulers to meet our zero waste goals equitably, and create more unionized green jobs associated with expanding our waste infrastructure in the process.
  • Expand funding for programs, like the NYC Compost Project, that provide technical assistance for neighbors to start community composting sites in community gardens. Provide compost bins and equipment to community gardens at no cost.

+ Create Youth Programming

  • Fund youth centered programs and employment opportunities like the CityParks Play, GrowNYC, Summer Youth Employment Program, and more and partnering up with in district open space groups like the Prospect Park Alliance and the Kensington Stewards to provide more paid open space stewardship programs.
  • Increase funding for the Department of Parks and Recreation for regular repair and maintenance of basketball courts, soccer fields, and playgrounds. Compared to other districts, District 39 allocates a very small amount of funding per park and playground acre.
  • Expand funding for youth environmental stewardship and sustainability education programs like The Natural Classroom program and work to connect in-district schools with Parks programming.
  • Partner with public schools to utilize open spaces for youth programming and outdoor classrooms.
  • Increased funding for accessible playground equipment, sensory playgrounds, and programming for children with physical disabilities and special needs.

+ Build safe biking networks

  • Reenvision Ocean Parkway as a safer public space and greenway for pedestrians and cyclists by repaving the greenway, lowering speed limits for cars, and improving benches and seating for coworking, school work, and socializing.
  • Create more than 425 miles of protected bike lanes across NYC, and connect existing bike lanes in the district to build dedicated bike lane networks. Our bike network design should first prioritize some of the most dangerous streets for cyclists, as well as lanes near schools and parks.
  • Expand Open Streets to more working-class neighborhoods of color. Work with the Department of Transportation and cycling community groups to improve bike lanes on Open Streets and make bike riders and pedestrians safer.
  • Host free workshops on bike safety skills in partnership with cycling community groups, and distribute free helmets, bike lights, and bells to encourage safer, confident cycling in the district.
  • Increase street lighting to improve visibility of pedestrians and cyclists, and allow for safer night travel.
  • Remove the NYPD from traffic enforcement, including cycling, and support the transition to move those responsibilities to the city’s Department of Transportation.

+ Create public arts programming

  • Work with senior centers to bring socially distant senior programming to the District’s open spaces.
  • Host programming in public spaces and parks throughout the District, like storytimes with the Brooklyn Public Library and constituent services workshops.
  • Partner with local community groups to showcase the work of local artists in the District’s open spaces — public art installations in open spaces, live performances and shows in the park.
  • Help local cultural institutions apply for the Department of Cultural Affairs’ Open Culture program, which allows socially distant performances in the City’s open streets.
  • Host workshops to guide smaller arts organizations through the Open Culture permit process.
  • Expand open culture legislation to provide funding for art venues.
  • Support outdoor performances with discretionary funding prioritizing venues and institutions that serve immigrant and New American communities.