From The Villager
Lopez refuses to fund more Seward Park repairs
By: Jennifer Jensen
March 21, 2001
When New York City's Parks and Recreation Department officials cut the ribbon in May to honor the completion of renovations to Seward Park, they will be celebrating only a half-finished project.
The park, located on the Lower East Side, flanked by E. Broadway and Essex and Canal Sts., could sit half-finished for years before the funding comes through to finish the work, and those close to the project are blaming one person - Councilmember Margarita Lopez.
A strong-willed Lopez has refused to meet with city Parks Department officials to discuss the project, and has said that she will not allocate funds in next year's budget for the next two phases of the renovations needed to complete the project, although she does plan to commit funds for playgrounds in Union Square Park.
Without Lopez's participation - Seward Park is in her district - the other contributors to the second, $2 million phase will not chip in for the work. The second phase of the work includes renovations to the basketball courts and swing sets, repairs to the fountain and an overhaul of the woodland area at the eastern end of the park, which is located next to the Seward Park Co-op. A third phase includes a $1.5 million renovation of the park's 1939 Recreation Building.
Founded in 1899 and named for Abraham Lincoln's secretary of state, William Seward, the park is the oldest municipal playground in the country.
"She refuses to meet with us," said Adrian Benepe, Manhattan Borough Commissioner for the Parks Department.
Benepe said that Lopez does not have a good track record for supporting parks in her district, which has at least 40 park properties totaling in excess of 90 acres. The deteriorating Lillian Wald Park, also in Lopez's district, has been closed for nearly 20 years. "We are at a loss to explain why the Councilmember thinks parks are not important," Benepe continued. "She was alone among the 51 Councilmembers in not allocating any money for parks in her district [last year]."
Lower East Side residents who fought for the renovations could not explain why Lopez has so firmly decided not to participate in the project. Others blame Lopez for bringing the project to a standstill.
"This is a capital-funding project and the park is in her district," said Lindsay Walt, a Lower East Side resident who has been fighting for years to get the park renovated. "This park is being held hostage because without Margarita Lopez we cannot get funding from the other members."
Councilmember Kathryn Freed, Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields and the Mayor had committed to the remaining costs of the project.
Lopez claims that the amount she would be expected to contribute, a quarter of the cost of the remaining total project, is too much.
"I cannot allocate a tremendous amount of resources in one park only," said Lopez, who says the Parks Department misled her when she contributed money in 1998 for the first half of the renovations. She said that when she put up the $600,000 for the initial work - a $2.4 million endeavor split evenly between Freed, Lopez, Giuliani and Fields - she was led to believe that would cover the work for the entire project.
She believes it is the city's responsibility, not her district's, to come up with funds for the project.
"That's something that belongs to the Mayor to take care of," she said.
The Mayor had agreed to pay for one-fourth of the project until Lopez said she was not going to contribute.
The city is putting up most of the money for the project to expand the southeast corner of Union Sq. Park - which is in Lopez's district.
Lower Manhattan Together, a community organization comprised of 15 interdenominational congregations on the Lower East Side, the East Village and in Greenwich Village, helped in the effort to get the initial allocations for the renovations to Seward Park. The group also succeeded in pressuring the Mayor to sponsor a major renovation of East River Park, according to Joe Morris, the group's lead organizer. He says they are not going to give up on finding funds to complete the renovations to Seward Park.
"We were very disappointed," said Morris of Lopez's decision. "We're going to keep asking elected officials to fill the leadership vacuum that's there."
Benepe said he's still holding out hope that Lopez will put up the funds.
"The Parks Department definitely isn't being hurt by it. The Mayor isn't being hurt by it. It's the children in her district who are being hurt by it," Benepe said. "We remain hopeful that she will put money in not just for Seward, but for the other parks in her district."
©The Villager 2003
