Frustrations were evident among the attendees at Bronx Community Board 7 (CB7)’s Parks meeting on Feb. 9, as members and residents expressed their exhaustion when it came to dealing with the Forestry unit within New York City Department of Parks & Recreation.

 

Parks committee chair, Barbara Stronczer, shared that she had recently attended a meeting with a Bronx representative of the Forestry unit, along with Ischia Bravo, CB7 district manager, and Karla Cabrera-Carrera, community coordinator for CB7.

 

Stronczer said Forestry informed her the unit does not usually attend community board meetings, even though CB7 has been trying to get a representative to join a meeting for quite a while. She said they preferred for questions and concerns to be submitted in writing.

 

At the meeting with the Forestry representative, Stronczer said she brought up the concerns raised by members at prior committee meetings, including the request for an updated list of where the unit plans to plant trees in the neighborhood. She said she was told that planting had slowed down because of COVID-19, but that the unit agreed to try to compile the required list for CB7 members.

 

Stronczer said she also told the Forestry unit that Parks committee members were concerned that their complaints, submitted to Parks’ 311 system, were not being answered. She said Forestry said the unit prioritizes complaints and responds to the most urgent ones first.

 

“So those that entail safety are the ones that get taken care of first,” Stronczer relayed to members. “He also added that in The Bronx, they have 4,000 requests. So, at this point, I don’t know what to say as far as a tree complaint, and how long you will have to wait if it’s not a safety issue.”

 

During the early months of the pandemic in 2020, following similar complaints by residents regarding uprooted trees and requests regarding the tree replacement policy, Norwood News followed up with NYC Parks and the department provided some explanation on how the replanting of tree works, as reported.

 

Stronczer added that she had also informed Forestry about some trees located at a particular local intersection which she noticed had been felled and had asked if there was regulation which allowed for such felling. She said Forestry said they didn’t know of any.

 

Moving on to another topic, according to Stronczer, some local merchants have been placing large stones and pebbles into street tree pits, leaving very little room for the trees to grow, and she therefore raised this with Forestry also. She said they confirmed that people were supposed to have a permit for this. Stronczer said she provided the addresses of where she had noticed this happening, and said Forestry agreed to go to the areas in question and follow-up.

 

“I did thank him for the work they did along Sedgewick and Bailey [Avenues],” she said. “So, other than that, my feeling is that I’m going to have to ask our staff at the community board to follow up on these vague answers that I received.” She added, “And, you know, it wasn’t the first time that some of these questions were given to Forestry.”

 

Bronx CB7 sanitation chair, Betty Arce, said she felt like Forestry was using the pandemic as an excuse not to follow up on matters even when they said they would. She suggested offering a daytime meeting time to the Forestry unit in case that was the reason why representatives were not attending community board meetings.

 

“I feel like it’s insulting that Forestry treats community boards the way they do,” Arce said. “This whole issue about attending meetings… the way they follow up is really unacceptable.” She then suggested connecting with Iris Rodriguez-Rosa, former Bronx parks commissioner and current City deputy parks commissioner, to help get Forestry more engaged with the community.

 

 

CB7 veterans chair, Chad Royer, agreed with Arce’s points, and on the back of Stronczer’s earlier acknowledgement of the work done on Bailey Avenue, he said trees there still needed some branches cut. “I find that very insulting,” Royer said. “They will not even give us the time of day to express our opinions and thoughts about our complaints. A lot of us in the community don’t know or understand what Forestry is. They don’t understand how you have to have special permits to deal with trees over certain heights.”

 

Royer suggested the board take a formal vote to demand a response from the Forestry unit. Stronczer then suggested that further to her recent meeting with the unit, Forestry be given some time to get back to the community board, and if nothing happened, to wait for the new Bronx Parks commissioner to be appointed and then write that person a letter to escalate the issues.

 

Stronczer said the Forestry representative mentioned that he had connected with local resident, Sirio Guerino, already about complaints he had submitted. Guerino, who was also at the CB7 meeting, said he had previously worked with Rodriguez-Rosa, but that since changing roles, the requests he had submitted for resolution were ignored by the Forestry unit. Guerino later told Norwood News that the deputy commissioner did help to get Forestry to cut a dead street tree down from the area in front of his private house. Rodriguez-Rosa was recently promoted to citywide deputy parks commissioner, as reported, having previously served as Bronx parks commissioner.

 

Bedford Park resident, Anthony Rivieccio, agreed with Guerino about the lack of communication from Rodriguez-Rosa since changing positions. “A lot of us know Rosa,” he said. “We know that Rosa comes from our section of The Bronx, but she’s also had a lot of broken promises within the last year. So, you know, just the fact that we know her doesn’t really ensure anything,” he added.

 

“This is just totally bogus, okay?” said Guerino, alleging that Forestry had already caught up with the most urgent work of removing dangerous trees two years earlier. “I’ve been always on them, constantly talking with them,” he said. “They should have got to the trees that need to be removed, and they should be putting in new fresh trees for us. This is unacceptable,” he said.

 

Guerino added that he is a licensed tree pruner with New York City and would be willing to go out and work on the trees himself. An attendee named Gwen said she also had a pruning certificate and would be willing to join him. Norwood News contacted NYC Parks department for comment on the issues raised. Dan Kastanis, press officer with NYC Parks, responded, saying, “It’s our mission to serve new Yorkers, and that includes communicating with them about their concerns and highlighting our teams hard work to preserve, protect, and care for our green spaces and parks.”

 

He added, “Listening and responding to the concerns of Bronxites is a priority for First Deputy Commissioner Iris Rodriguez-Rosa and our Bronx team — we are in communication with the Community Board, and have had multiple follow-up discussions with the Chair to address their comments after the February meeting.”

 

 

The committee then moved on to talk about snow removal issues following the recent snowstorms. Daisy Perry said in Bedford Park, near Mosholu Parkway, off of Grand Concourse, there wasn’t much shoveling on the first day after the recent storm, and that there was some shoveling the second day, but then the snow washed away.

 

Stronczer said she noticed the City did a good job shoveling after a recent snow storm. Guerino said Mosholu Parkway North and South were cleared, but he found out workers couldn’t clear east to west because their trucks were broken.

 

A meeting attendee named Tasha added that the track at Williamsbridge Oval had been covered with ice. She said she and some kids tried to break it up, but it didn’t help much. Royer said some of the walking paths at Devoe Park had been shoveled, but the western part of the park had been ignored. He said the sidewalks around the park had also not been done well.

 

Later, Stronczer updated the Parks committee on a recent Mosholu Parkway Safety Improvement Project workshop that had been hosted by NYC Department of Transportation (DOT). She said most of the workshop focused on plans to make lane changes to enhance parkway safety, including adding left-turn lanes to some intersections.

 

She mentioned there was also a dirt pathway between Bainbridge Avenue and Van Cortlandt Avenue that pedestrians use to cut across the parkway, and that during the workshop, attendees discussed adding a light there to make pedestrian-crossing safer.

 

Stronczer then spoke about a bike path on the north side of the parkway that needed work. She said she didn’t hear anything about funding for the project during the workshop, but that according to DOT, funding for the work would indeed be covered by that department. It is anticipated that the department will present plans to CB7 in the spring and have the work done in the fall.

 

“There’s no money at this point from DOT to touch any of the parklands or do anything with some of the items that really need to be done on the parkway,” said Stronczer.

 

The meeting concluded with Royer asking about Parks staffing levels as the spring and summer seasons approach. Stronczer said if Parks received a funding increase from 0.5 percent to 1 percent of the City project, as promised by Mayor Eric Adams, additional staffing wouldn’t be an issue. However, she said she was recently at a meeting where Adams did not confirm or deny the budget change.

 

 

Finally, it was confirmed that the annual Bronx Parks Speak-Up event, organized by the Bronx Coalition of Parks and Green Spaces, was scheduled to take place on Saturday, Feb. 26, between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. and that this year’s theme was, “Green Infrastructure: Building a Healthier Bronx.”

 

Meanwhile, the CB7 March Parks’ meeting was held on March 9. Among the topics discussed was a recent virtual seminar held to discuss the future renovations to Poe Park. The park’s visitor center recently hosted an exhibition for Black History Month, as reported.

 

More concerns over proposed cuts to the City’s Parks’ budget by Mayor Eric Adams, as part of his draft $98.5 billion citywide budget for the upcoming year, were voiced at the March 9 CB7 meeting. A March 22nd protest is planned at City Hall by “New Yorkers for Parks” to oppose the move.

 

Excited about the rehabilitation and upgrades coming to POE PARK. Happy to see the community participate and contribute their ideas. Thank you @NYCParks & @OswaldFeliz for the support. #parks #Bronx https://t.co/dB52NAkxci

— Ischia Bravo (@Bronxbravo) March 8, 2022

 

The cuts to PEP officers are of particular concern to local Bronx residents due to sustained anger over quality-of-life issues experienced by residents each summer due to excessively loud music played at barbecues and parties held in the borough’s parks, which often go on until the early hours, as evidenced by the number of noise complaints logged each year.

 

Meanwhile, residents are also concerned over the need to budget for the parks’ upkeep, as reported.  “We’ve always relied on NYC’s parks and open spaces, but over the last two years they’ve been central to our city’s recovery and our collective wellbeing,” New Yorkers for Parks wrote in a recent press release. “Mayor Adams committed to funding NYC Parks with 1 percent of the NYC budget on the campaign trail.”

 

The group continued, “However, his recently released preliminary budget sharply departs from these promises, cutting the NYC Parks budget by $60 million and potentially allowing 3,500 essential NYC Parks jobs (including PEP officers and maintenance staff) to expire on June 30.”

 

Meanwhile, representatives behind the 60th anniversary season of Free Shakespeare in the Park confirmed there will be some upcoming performances in Bronx parks. Further details will be shared, once received.

 

Finally, Bronxites are encouraged to register their children for Summer Camp 2022 by March 21. See attached poster for details.

 

*Síle Moloney contributed to this story. 

 

Editor’s Note: In an earlier version of this story, it was reported that Mr. Guerino said that Deputy Commissioner Rodriguez-Rosa hadn’t done anything to help close his complaints sent to the Forestry unit. Mr. Guerino later clarified that in fact the commissioner had assisted in ensuring Forestry removed a dead street tree from the area in front of his private home but that other complaints were ignored by the Forestry unit. The latest version of the story has been updated to reflect this.