The current effort by Byron Brown to 'take back' city parks & playgrounds from the County & the Olmstead Conservancy is a transparent political ploy to get patronage jobs.
During my visit in June I visited MLK Park on Fillmore & Best, which in the past has been shabbily maintained, especially the 'memorial' area around the bust of MLK. The park looked better than I have ever seen it.
Clearly Byron Brown is lusting after all those semi-skilled jobs to reward his many 'worker bees' who swept him to easy victory in the primary.
The agreement with the County to maintain city parks was one of few "regionalism" ideas that Giambra actually accomplished. Other thriving cities as close as Toronto have benefited immensely from regional govt. The third poorest US city will not benefit by moving backward.
I'd urge citizens to contact both the mayor & councilpersons to slow a destructive trend.
Here is Donn Esmonde, again right on the money . . .
http://www.buffalonews.com/donnesmon...8.html#comment
City should keep its hands off Olmsteds
Donn Esmonde, Updated: September 30, 2009, 9:30 AM /
The folks at City Hall should have enough sense to leave well enough alone. The key word in that sentence is "should."
Instead, Mayor Byron Brown seems ready to gum up the engine of one of the few things in the city that runs well. Like a toddler with a tool kit, City Hall apparently cannot stop itself from doing damage.
The city is about to retake control of its parks from the county. The mayor seems poised to make a power grab for some of the jobs at the nonprofit Olmsted Parks Conservancy, which restored and runs the six jewels of the city's parks system. Instead of leaving well enough alone, the city -- on flimsy pretense -- is dragging the Conservancy to the table to "negotiate" an agreement.
It would be bad enough if Brown is simply arm-twisting the Conservancy into handing over some jobs. The fear among Olmsted backers is that Brown -- juiced by his easy victory in the recent primary -- wants to kick the Conservancy to the curb and claim all of its 150 full- or part-time jobs.
"We never said, and never suggested, that this is an effort to get rid of the Conservancy," mayoral spokesman Peter Cutler said. "We want an agreement that is in the best interests of the city and park users."
I do not think the mayor wants to provoke a frontal assault from the Olmsted army by jettisoning the Conservancy. But Brown clearly is salivating over a potential mother lode of patronage jobs -- particularly in postprimary season, with his backers looking to be rewarded with places on the payroll.
There is little doubt that the deeper City Hall sinks its claws into the Olmsteds, the worse the parks will be. The city's previous go-round with its parks was a grim journey marked by busted swings, broken seesaws and waterless swimming pools. Its uninspired stewardship of the Johnnie B. Wiley sports complex hardly inspires confidence.
Stop me before I invoke the memory of Bob Delano, the infamously wayward parks commissioner under Mayor Jimmy Griffin who vindictively dumped chlorine into Delaware Park Lake. Granted, that was a different administration. But it shows what can happen if the Olmsteds are run by people who are not passionate about them.
The city has been paying the county $1.8 million a year to care for its parks, $1.3 million of which went to the Olmsted Conservancy. In return, the Conservancy gives taxpayers the biggest bang for the buck in municipal government. It fills half of its annual $3.2 million budget with private dollars, raised by and from a legion of true believers in Frederick Law Olmsted, America's genius landscape architect. That army includes 1,000 volunteers who keep the grass mowed, the trees trimmed and the gardens planted at Delaware, Martin Luther King, South, Front, Cazenovia and Riverside parks.
To my mind, City Hall should not be "negotiating" with the Conservancy people. It should be thanking them for giving residents about $3 million of Olmsted Parks care at half-price.
Brown is trying to hide his lust for patronage jobs behind a smoke screen of "concerns" about where the Conservancy's staff lives and how much seasonal workers are paid. Give me a break. The city has not had an address-checking residency officer for years. As for the city's worthy but much-abused "living wage" standard, the mayor has contorted himself to avoid paying it to everyone from ambulance workers to seasonal trash collectors.
Beyond that, the Conservancy's 40 percent minority work force sets the diversity bar for any major cultural group. I think the real problem, in City Hall's view, is not that the Conservancy does not fill enough positions with black people. It is that it does not fill enough positions with Brown people.
desmonde@buffnews.com
Kern,
You're right on the mark with this.... The very idea that city hall would try to undo something that is working so well says a lot about why this place is in the shape it is.
I've come and gone a couple of times for school and then 1 year jobs, and next time I think I might just stay gone and try somewhere new.
It's just disheartening how this place is run.
The truth from a troll is still the truth.
This support for Olmsted from 3 County legislators is encouraging, especially the support of Betty Grant, who historicaly has been part of Byron Brown "Grassroots" base.
http://www.buffalorising.com/2009/10...l#SlideFrame_0
3 County Legislators Support Olmsted Conservancy
Buffalo Rising October 1, 2009 11:47 AM
Erie County Legislature Chair Lynn M. Marinelli, Majority Leader Legislator Maria R. Whyte, and County Legislator Betty Jean Grant are asserting their support for the Olmsted Parks Conservancy in its efforts to maintain the Olmsted Parks in Buffalo, including Cazenovia, Delaware, Front, Martin Luther King Jr., Riverside and South Park, as well as the adjoining parkways, circles.
Legislature Chair Marinelli said the Olmsted Conservancy has done the parks proud, adding, "The Olmsted Parks also play a role in Erie County regaining its proud standing in the community as well as become an increasingly popular cultural tourism attraction."
Legislator Whyte made a point of noting that the parks, though enjoyed by locals, have a regional effect. "Erie County residents can use these parks and their offerings for programming, special events and even employment and job training," she said.
"My support of the Olmsted Conservancy, its mission and actual performance are derived in part from the good work I have witnessed at Martin Luther King Jr. Park in my community, and as chair of the Community Enrichment Committee," Legislator Grant said. "The Olmsted Parks give the City of Buffalo and its residents a sense of community, peace and recreation, and we support continuing this."
The three Democratic legislators were pleased that the Olmsted Parks Conservancy had raised more than $6 million for the operation of the parks, not including the county's matching grant. They agreed that the staff, board and volunteers have achieved major successes in the operation and maintenance of the 1,200-acre Olmsted Park and Parkway System since the intermunicipal agreement was approved in July 2004, and hope for continued success.
The County Legislature Democratic Majority approved the $360,000 matching grant in the 2009 Erie County budget, and will continue to work with the County Executive to allocate that funding to the Olmsted Parks.
Image: Delaware Park
11:47 AM
First of all, let's understand that the COB is taking back its parks because Erie County has done a piss-poor job of maintaining the non-Olmstead parks.
Second, the Olmstead Parks Conservancy had a contract with Erie County, not the COB. The City should, at the very least, carefully examine that contract. It should NOT give OPC carte blanche simply because that's what a newspaper columnist thinks they should do.
Thirdly, any new agreement with the OPC should make it clear that the COB does NOT cede control of its parks to any private entity. Esmonde conveniently glossed over the OPC banning the bicycle ice cream vendor this past summer.
Moreover, I think that the COB should have input into the hiring practices of individuals the OPC hires to work in the parks because ultimately, the COB is responsible for what happens in the Olmstead Parks. If OPC doesn't do background checks and hires a sex offender who later commits a rape while on the job in the park, who's going to be sued?
Issues are seldom as black and white as Esmonde likes to pretend they are.
Wow. You really are crazy, aren't you? You're one of those parents that had their kid on a leash, aren't you?Originally Posted by Linda_D
Your statement has NOTHING to do with the issue at hand.
http://www.buffaloreuse.org/~kool aid free zone~
her statement is actually very relevant. If a person has history of sexual assault then they shouldn't be working in a park.
HOWEVER I don't think the city should take over the olmstead parks.
“Two percent of the people think; three percent of the people think they think; and ninety-five percent of the people would rather die than think.”
well, we shouldn't hire people that are terrorists or convicted murderers to work in the parks either....
How does that relate to the issue at hand with Olmstead?
Look at the parks; they have never looked better since I have been here. Maybe Olmstead should take care of Maple Rd, NF BLVD, and Sheridan Drive too....
The truth from a troll is still the truth.
Let the City take back those parks. THe County should have never touched them to begin with. The County polished the turds and now the Mayor thinks they are crown jewels. Let him have them. Maybe he can get his buddy Stokes a position!
The olmstead conservatory takes care of Parks that where designed by fredrick Olmstead.
They do an excellent job in South Buffalo, they take care of caz park and the mckinley circles.
I mean sure their a few kinks here and there, but over all I am happy with them.
“Two percent of the people think; three percent of the people think they think; and ninety-five percent of the people would rather die than think.”
I'm not the one going around posting irrational ad hominem attacks on another poster like you are doing repeatedly to me, so it ain't me, babe, who's "crazy". Go look in a mirror.
Since the city owns the parks, it is ultimately responsible for what happens in them. That is entirely relevant since Esmonde is advocating that the city allow the Olmstead Parks Conservancy to do whatever it wants on the grounds that the OPC has done a good job of maintaining them.
OPC should have control over the upkeep of the Olmstead Parks. The Parks are much cleaner, likely even safer than anytime I can remember. COB should recognize this and agree to keeping what was in place, in place. However, that probably makes too much sense and won't happen.
Linda, maybe if you answered people's replies in to your postings in other threads they wouldnt "chase" you around on the forum. You seem to like to write something controversial or not based on facts and then stop posting when you are called out on your inaccuracies.
Before you defend him, maybe you should read keyboard150's irrational and nasty attacks on me in Mesue's thread on mandatory vaccinations when I had said nothing at all to him or to deserve his hatred. He is out of line.
Im not defending Keyboard. I just find it interesting that you seem to post things and then dont respond to people when they respond to your posts.
When I mentioned the names of roads I meant maybe the conservancy could be hired to find a way to make some of the main roads around here look like something from 2009 America instead of a slum in Baghdad after a bombing raid...
The truth from a troll is still the truth.
seems to me like:
Has a lot to do with the issue at hand. A lot of people use non Olmstead parks
People who wonder if the glass is half empty or full miss the point. The glass is refillable.
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