New York City Parks Await a Leader [NYTimes]

N.Y. / REGION

Anxiety Builds as New York City Parks Await a Leader

By LISA W. FODERARO  MARCH 14, 2014


www.nytimes.com /2014/03/15 /nyregion/ anxiety-builds-as-new-york-city-parks-await-a-leader


Anxiety Builds as New York City Parks Await a Leader http://nyti.ms/1e16w1k

  ...  “On the day to day, Liam and his team are really outstanding and up to the task,” said Councilman Mark Levine, who is chairman of the parks committee. “So I don’t think the department is suffering in the operational sense. But there are many policy questions, like how to deal with the conservancies and issues of inequity, which are complicated and political and require permanent leadership to address.”  ...
  “I’d certainly like to see a parks commissioner who is sensitive to the urgency of outer-borough park needs,” said Eric A. Seiff  ...  “The big events are cranking up, the ball fields are opening and the beaches need to be ready,” said Mr. Benepe, now a senior official at the nonprofit 

Trust for Public Land . “Getting up to speed with all that is not going to happen easily.”
The parks budget will also be debated this spring. Mr. de Blasio has released a preliminary city budget; a more detailed plan is due in April. 

 New Yorkers for Parks, an advocacy group, voiced frustration at the continued vacancy in the commissioner’s office. “Now is the time when we’d like to be working with the parks commissioner to develop funding priorities,” said Tupper Thomas, the executive director. “It’s tough to advocate for a better budget without those priorities in place.”  

A version of this article appears in print on March 15, 2014, on page A18
of the New York edition