Julie Menin Brings $25K Earth Day Haul For UES Parks

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — The scarce parks space on the Upper East Side is about to get a little bit nicer.

Just in time for Earth Day this weekend, Council Member Julie Menin announced Thursday that $25,000 in additional funding for improvements across a handful of District 5 playgrounds.

Of that, $10,000 will go toward a seasonal playground associate at St. Catherine's Park, where they will help organize recreational activities for kids and help inspect and maintain the playground, according to Menin's office.

The remaining $15,000 will be spent on landscaping beautification at St. Catherine's, John Jay Park and Stanley Isaacs Playground, including shrubs and perennials.

“I’m thrilled to fund initiatives that directly revitalize our parks for residents as we are a Council District with some of the least amounts of green space," said Menin, who is also a member of the City Council's Environmental Protection Committee.

Menin's District 5, which encompasses the eastern portion of the Upper East Side, ranks 47 out of the 51 council districts in park and playground space per resident, according to a 2015 study from New Yorkers For Parks.

"Our precious green spaces are a necessary and healthy respite from the urban environment surrounding us and I am committed to improving parks across our district,” Menin said.

Friends of St. Catherine’s, a volunteer organization that helps to maintain the park, gave the announcement — and the council member's "commitment to the vital resources that are our public parks," a hearty "bravo."

In the past year, Menin has also helped renovate and expand the Lexington Houses Community Garden and has frequently highlighted the lack of green space in the district, just as she did at a ribbon cutting for the newly renovated Honey Locust Park last week.

The plantings at St. Catherine's will begin in May.