In discretionary funds included in New York’s 2024 City Budget, City Council Members Julie Menin and Keith Powers announced $25 million in targeted spending. Menin represents Roosevelt Island.
by David Stone
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
In the 2024 City Budget
“Council Members Julie Menin and Keith Powers prioritized upgrading schools, community centers, playgrounds, parks, and public hospitals in their Council Districts. The Council Members have allocated funding to provide parks programming and sanitation services for additional trash cleanups as well as providing each public school in their district with at least $50,000 towards critical technology, auditorium, or infrastructure upgrades.” Joint announcement after the budget passed.
What’s it mean for Roosevelt Island?
Here are the Roosevelt Island specific details.
- NYCH+H Coler Hospital on Roosevelt Island – $1,650,000 to modernize heating, air conditioning and elevator systems.
- PS/IS 217 – The Roosevelt Island School – $250,000 to support bathroom renovations.
But there’s more in more generally beneficial spending. Additional investments go into Central Park’s Delacorte Theatre for upgrading the bathrooms and to resiliency upgrades and climate control at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Among nonprofits getting funds is the Carter Burden Center, which is the central resource for Roosevelt Island’s Older Adult Center.
On naming, neglect, and the quiet work that keeps things standing
About twenty years ago, there was Harbor Police activity near the water, just south of the subway entrance. At the time, no one really thought of it as a pier, though technically there was a small boardwalk there. Of course it wasn’t a pier. A pier implies intention.
