Bronx Council for Environmental Quality (BCEQ) officials congratulated Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday, Feb. 8, on appointing who they referred to as two highly qualified executives, who are also women, to NYC Department of Parks and Recreation: Commissioner Susan M. Donoghue, and as her first deputy commissioner, Iris Rodriguez-Rosa. Donoghue is the president and parks administrator of Prospect Park Alliance in Brooklyn; and Rodriguez-Rosa is the “beloved” Bronx parks commissioner, according to BCEQ.

 

In a press release issued Tuesday, Chauncy Young, BCEQ board member, congratulated both Donoghue and Rodriguez-Rosa, saying, “We look forward to working with your leadership team to bring equity to the Bronx in terms of personnel, maintenance and capital improvements.”

 

Dr. Robert Fanuzzi, BCEQ president, added that Adams chose two leaders who make parks the centerpiece of healthy, resilient communities. He said having worked closely with Rodriguez-Rosa, BCEQ knew first-hand what a difference a community-minded parks leader can make. “We are Bronx parks champions, and look forward to working closely with Commissioner Donoghue and First Deputy to make sure all the health, environmental, and civic benefits of clean, green parks reach all our communities,” he said.

 

Assembly Member Jeffrey Dinowitz (A.D. 81) also shared his approval of Adams’ choices, saying, “Our parks are an integral part of what makes our community here in the north and northwest Bronx special, and it is wonderfully exciting to welcome our new Parks Commissioner Donoghue as well as the Bronx’s own Iris Rodriguez-Rosa as the First Deputy Commissioner.” He added,  “Congratulations, and I look forward to an accomplished and dedicated set of partners to work with on behalf of Bronxites and all New Yorkers.”

 

Another BCEQ board member, Christina Taylor, said, for her part, “Today is a great day for NYC Parks as two extraordinary women were selected for leadership roles. I look forward to getting to know and working with Commissioner Donoghue.  While I will miss having Commissioner Rodriguez-Rosa in the Bronx with us, I know she will be able to do even more for our parks in her new role.”

According to NYC Parks, Rodriguez-Rosa started her career organizing tenants and the community in Williamsburg Brooklyn in the late 1970s under the Federal Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) program. She then began public service with the City with Brooklyn Borough President Howard Golden as a community board liaison, and later, in 1979, became the district manager for Brooklyn Community Board 4 in Bushwick, deemed, then, the youngest ever appointed.

 

She began her career at Parks in 1986 serving as director of community boards, continued as an operations manager in upper Manhattan and for the better part of 20 years, and later served as chief of recreation in the public programs division in both the Bronx and Queens. It was in this capacity that she reportedly realized that bringing health and fitness opportunities to New Yorkers was exceedingly important, and that parks and facilities offered the perfect environment for creative programing.

 

According to NYC Parks, it was with her initial efforts and support from Parks that she was able to obtain programming funding from elected officials for events such as movie nights, family days and concerts.

 

Rodriguez-Rosa has served as the Bronx Borough Parks Commissioner since 2015. In this role, Parks officials said she helped work with, and merge the Friends of Van Cortlandt Parks and the Van Cortlandt Conservancy to become what is now the Van Cortlandt Alliance. They also said she has been a champion, along with former Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., for the renovation of the Orchard Beach Pavilion, and has helped execute countless playground renovations for the benefit of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers across the city.

 

“Iris is the adoptive parent to her two nieces, Sylvia and Jasmine, and helps care for her nephew, Jason, and grandnephew, Amir,” Parks officials said. “Her anchor and best friend [is] her husband, Manny Rosa, and they have five beautiful grandchildren, Noel, Sophia, Annabel, Rafael, and Aaron Jeremiah,”

 

Deb Travis of Jerome Park Friends & Neighbors, also had high praise for Rodriguez-Rosa, saying, “Iris has the ability to get down in the weeds and work with volunteer parks groups while still seeing the big picture and knowing how and when to say no. The city is lucky to have her experience and the Bronx is lucky to have her voice at the table.”

 

Karen Argenti, also a BCEQ board member, said, in part, “The two candidates have the knowledge and experience of Parks leadership, so critically needed in these days of budget cuts. We are all excited for Iris Rodriguez-Rosa who is a stellar administrator with a keen understanding of the Bronx inequities in all City agency’s service delivery.” Argenti added, “Remember the Bronx needs more than a fair share because we are so far behind at 62 of the 62 NYS counties in health outcomes and factors since 2009.”

 

Formed in 1971, BCEQ officials said the organization has sought to establish — as an inherent human right — a sound, forward-looking environmental policy regarding an aesthetic, unpolluted, environment protecting a natural and historic heritage. An all-volunteer organization, celebrating 50 years of environmental advocacy, BCEQ officials said the organization’s goal is to advocate for improving water quality, developing waterfront greenways and recreational uses, and restoring shoreline natural habitats, among others.

 

In the wake of Hurricane Ida in September 2021, and the related flooding of much of the Bronx which followed, as reported, BCEQ called again, at the time, for funding and the construction of the daylighting of Tibbetts Brook Project. According to the website, Naturally Resilient Communities, daylighting rivers or streams is the process of removing obstructions (such as concrete or pavement) which are covering a river, creek, or drainage way and restoring them to their previous condition.

 

Naturally Resilient Communities say that as urban areas are developed with roadways, parking lots, and buildings, waterways are sometimes redirected, covered in impervious material, and/or buried in pipes, culverts, or a drainage system to create a more buildable surface area or in an attempt to protect properties from flooding.

 

Naturally Resilient Communities say that unfortunately, burying or covering rivers and streams has the unintended consequences of increasing nutrient pollution, degrading habitats, and increasing downstream flooding. Daylighting removes these artificial impediments and reestablishes rivers and streams within their original channels where possible or, where development is in the way, creates a new channel for the waterway. The resulting restored river or stream provides stormwater benefits as well as numerous aesthetic, economic, and environmental co-benefits.

 

 

The BCEQ group said last September that while the Tibbetts Brook daylighting project was being proposed as part of the City’s combined sewer overflow mitigation program, the events of Sept. 1 (Hurricane Ida) indicated that protecting essential infrastructure saves lives, and immediately lessens the impact of climate change. “We don’t have time to wait,” the group said at the time. As many photos taken during the flooding showed at the time, large sections of Mosholu Parkway and other major roadways were submerged in water due to insufficient or blocked drainage.

 

BCEQ had proposed the following solutions:

1. the immediate implementation of the community outreach for design phase of Tibbetts Brook daylighting and the full funding of design and construction
2. the immediate inclusion of the Tibbett’s Brook daylighting and greenway in the FY23 executive budget ten-year capital strategy
3. NY State DOT to partner with the City on improvements and green infrastructure design for outfalls of the Major Deegan to eliminate stormwater discharge from reaching Van Cortlandt Lake
4. State/federal elected officials to immediately tap into federal funding to rehabilitate Bailey Playground, integrating the green space from 234th to 238th, addressing the flooding on Bailey Avenue, and using best stormwater management and environmental justice community engagement practices.
5. State/federal/City elected officials to identify and prioritize evacuation corridors for immediate climate change infrastructure upgrades.
6. State/federal elected officials to immediately tap into federal funding to integrate green infrastructure in Van Cortlandt Park to address the flooding short circuits, outside of the targeted daylighting areas to make the watershed more resilient and sustainable.

 

Norwood News followed up with BQCE to check if the group had received any feedback on their proposals thus far from the elected officials, or from the different government agencies. Argenti responded on Tuesday, Feb. 8, saying she believes some of the proposals have been taken into account in what she described as the “New Normal” book. “I think we got Tibbetts Brook funding. It is at $130 million or thereabouts. CB8 is doing budgets for the next year.” She added, “We have baby steps in most of the items, but nothing definite yet.”