The New York City Council announced the details of the recently passed budget for the upcoming fiscal year, which began on July 1. The total approved funding for the city is $112.4 billion – up from $107 billion last fiscal year – and a portion will benefit a number of initiatives and organizations on the Upper West Side.
“It was a difficult process because the Mayor had cut essential programs that the Council had to restore,” Council Member Gale Brewer said in a recent newsletter. “And there is less federal money compared to years past.”
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District 6 highlights include more than $26 million allocated to cultural institutions and libraries (AMNH, MOMA, Jazz at Lincoln Center, etc.) and more than $7 million for parks.
The budget also includes additional “units of appropriation,”–or U/As–which in short are meant to specify in as much detail as possible how funds are to be used. New U/As have been added to the Police Department, Department of Correction, and Parks Department for Parks Enforcement Patrol.
Below are some of the organizations and initiatives in District 6 receiving a significant amount of funding. The budget can be viewed in full here.
District 6 Parks
- $4.67 million for Matthew P. Sapolin Playground
- $1.5 million to Riverside Park for W. 68 Street ADA ramp reconstruction
- $770,000 to Central Park Delacorte Theater for public bathroom renovation
- $375,000 to Riverside Park for water filling stations (funded by the vote of 6th District Participatory Budgeting participants)
- $200,000 for Verdi Square Park safety lighting (also Participatory Budgeting)
- $150,000 for trees and tree guards (also Participatory Budgeting)
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District 6 Housing
- Funding for 11 NYCHA tenant associations
- $50,000 Stryker’s Bay Apartments (66 W. 94th St.) for courtyard repair work
Cultural Institutions and Libraries
- $7.57 million to the American Museum of Natural History
- $7 million to the Metropolitan Museum of Art
- $4.57 million to the Children’s Museum of Manhattan
- $4.075 million to the Art Students League of New York
- $1.075 million to the Elaine Kaufman Cultural Center
- $1.2 million to the Metropolitan Opera (Mayor)
- $500,000 to Damrosch Park at Lincoln Center
- $1.575 million to Symphony Space
- $150,000 to the Aperture Foundation
- $75,000 to Jazz at Lincoln Center
- $75,000 to the New York City Center
- $75,000 to the New-York Historical Society
Youth
- $100,000 for the continuation of the Goddard Riverside Outreach Program at NYCHA’s Amsterdam Houses/Amsterdam Addition which connects youth with education and employment opportunities.
