Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Supporting Philadelphia's Parks

Fairmount Park looks great despite, not because of, its funding
The Philadelphia Parks Alliance is leading a push to increase funding for Philadelphia's parks system. The Inquirer agreed that, despite the Parks & Recreation Dept. doing much with little, we as a city should be caring more about the state of our public green spaces.

The Parks Alliance has organized an e-mail campaign to City Council, showing support for increasing funding by $8 million (small change in the current budget discussions). Some council members have shown support for the idea, so now is a critical time to back them up with public support. You can send the e-mail and tell them why parks matter to you right here.

2 comments:

phillygoat said...

It's been about two years since the Fairmount Park Commission was abolished by a ballot question; I recall the Bicycle Coalition and Committee of 70 endorsed this (so I voted for it). With hindsight of several years, has funding or management of the city park system been improved by that change? Are things in better shape today because of it?

Anonymous said...

Things are much better now that Fairmount Park has merged with the Recreation Department. The merger took about two years to happen and the Department is now operating as one entity. City Council is much more responsive to the budgetary needs of the agency now that it is fully within the Administration. Park advocates are making much more headway in advocating for more funding now than under the old regime.