How would you spend all that cold hard government cash? (My project: free Slurpee machines at every major intersection on the UWS in the summer.)
City Council members on the Upper West Side are holding meetings to discuss and vote on how to spend $1 million in the community. It’s a good way to talk about priorities you may have for your block or area, and to possibly get money for your pet project (though $1 million doesn’t buy much these days, sadly.)
Mark Levine has three local meetings on “participatory budgeting” in the next few weeks (more info here, here, and here), and Helen Rosenthal has two (more here). We’ve listed them below.
Upcoming meetings on the UWS are below:
Mark Levine
June 02, 2014 at 7pm – 8:30pm
Auditorium of P.S. 163
163 W 97th St
Between Amsterdam and Columbus
Helen Rosenthal
Thursday, June 12, 2014
6:00pm – 8:00pm
West Side YMCA
5 West 63rd Street
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
6:00pm – 8:00pm
Goddard Riverside
593 Columbus Avenue
I’d offer the funds to a candidate for City Council who was *not* married to a banker, to level the advertising playing field and allow voters a meaningful choice.
Somehow, though, I doubt the idea would fly with our current City Council representative.
I would have a 24/7 dog park built in Central Park with swimming area. Off leash is great but the time is too short!
Off leash is awful. I can’t tell you how many times i’m jogging through the park and have to bob and weave around somebody’s dog. Once I even tripped over one and got hurt. Dogs should be controlled, and on leashes. They are animals, most of them well behaved animals by responsible people who would never intentionally hurt a soul, which i’m sure is the case with your dog and I have no reason to doubt that you are a responsible dog owner, but they are still animals who can be dangerous (though rare) have a mind of their own. The dog run is for dogs without leashes, I do not believe that the general park should be turned into a big dog run. Make the dog runs bigger, i’m all for that, give them more space to run, but when they are not in there they should be on leashes.
Off leash can be bad for dog owners too. Not all dogs are as well behaved as their owners think, and I’ve had my shy dog out on leash, and had a “well behaved dog” charge up to him, be all over him, and when I explain to the other dog’s owner that my dog is fearful I either get some explanation as to how being intimidated by the other dog will help him learn to relax, or watched the owner call 20-30 times before the other dog finally responds. I try to avoid off leash, but some people help themselves to additional off leash times and locations,which I find incredibly frustrating.
If I had money, and all more important social ills had been addressed, I would set up dog toile ting areas on every block, somehow closed off so no one else has to look at them (or smell them), and somehow composting or othrwise dealing with the waste in a way that wouldn’t leave the specimens preserved forever in little baggies. And a pool that my dog can actually swim in.
“responsible dog owner” ??? An oxymoron if ever I heard one!! Dogs belong in the countryside.
There should be toilet areas for dogs… and not only in the parks….. Dogs are responsible for depositing hundreds of gallons of urine on our sidewalks daily. Why should we have to endure breathing in this appalling stench on the UWS.
agreed. that idea is the most defensible, least offensive to all and most practical. it works in every city and seems to be foolproof.
How’s about RE-PAVING the west lanes of Broadway near Lincoln Center, and also Columbus Ave. in same area??
Anyone at Sunday’s street fair between W.66th and W.72nd had to dodge GAPING holes in the roadway (some marked with warning X’s) plus badly-done asphalt patches-upon-patches, especially at the infamous “Bowtie of Death” (Broadway/Amsterdam/W. 71st).
Are we a World-Class City … or a Third-World-Class City ?
Scooter, not before they repave, re-curb, re-sidewalk, and provide better street lighting for Broadway above 86th Street!
With Diblasio at the helm its starting to look like the latter
How about creating a fake community group and staff it with relatives and friends. All the funds would go to support the lifestyles of all involved. Oh, wait the City Council already does this….
With all the banks, Deanne Reads and chain stores.. domiciled who knows where, we aint getting tax money from most of commerce in this city. No wonder the place looks like Calcutta on a bad day.
then how about some indiction or programs from the City welcoming and encouraging businesses to locate here, hire here, where they won’t be demonized and taxed to death.
I would use the money for additional law enforcement in the West 90’s or return the money to the taxpayers.
“return to the taxpayer”: so every taxpayer would get about 25 cents.
It’s a start…..