Bibb wants to carve out a standalone Department of Parks and Recreation from the city’s massive, 3,000-person Public Works Department, a move aimed at improving city-owned parks.
Courtney Astolfi, cleveland.com
As it stands today, Public Works essentially serves as an umbrella department that oversees many of the city’s core operations. It’s comprised of a division of recreation, a division of park maintenance and properties, and several other divisions, collectively handling everything from street repair to waste collection to maintenance of government buildings.
“A park is supposed to be an asset. It’s not an asset if it’s neglected, dangerous, poorly maintained or badly designed – it’s an eyesore,” said Julian Khan, who works for Neighborhood Connections and is a community activist in the Buckeye neighborhood area. Brookside Park, at 111 acres, is among the city's largest parks. Off John Nagy Boulevard, its condition is rated "5", the highest on the city's scale. The Jim Thome All Star Complex is the highlight of the park.The Trust for Public Land routinely assesses Cleveland parks and the parks of other cities across the United States. In its 2021 assessment,in the nation based on various factors.
Just over a century ago, a Cleveland Foundation study found there were already disparities in how much the city spent on parks, and the number of parks available to different populations, according to Stephen Love, environment program director at the foundation. Davinwood Park, off West 191st Street, received a rating of "4," putting its condition on the higher end of the city's rating scale.Establishing a city department focused only on parks and recreation could remedy some of these spending and inequity problems, the advocates said.
But establishing a standalone department, whatever its leadership looks like, is aimed at curtailing the drawbacks that come with the current set-up of housing parks and recreation within the bureaucracy of the Public Works Department. At the time, council members had concerns. Then-Councilman Kevin Kelley publicly worried whether the combined department would be as responsive as the individual departments had been, according to Plain Dealer reporting.
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