Uptown Dog Park, Local Schools Secure Participatory Budget Funding

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY — The results are in for Participatory Budgeting in Washington Heights and Inwood, and a local dog run and multiple schools will be receiving substantial amounts of funds in the upcoming city budget.

The first set of $500,000 in funding, which was organized by Council Member Carmen De La Rosa, will go to four uptown schools.

The money will fund computer lab expansions and bathroom accessibility upgrades in P.S. 115 at 586 W. 177th St., and technological improvements at I.S. 52, P.S. 128, and the Castle Bridge School.

The entirety of the other $500,00 will go toward improvements at the much maligned J. Hood Wright Dog Run near West 175th Street and Haven Avenue.

The amount of funding was decided by a "quote provided by the city agencies who worked with the delegates based on the size and scope of the improvements outlined in their proposal," a spokesperson from De La Rosa's office told Patch.

The specific improvements that the $500,000 will go toward in the uptown dog park are not yet available — but as Patch reported in March — dog owners have expressed frustrations for years over the holes, flooding, standing water, dusty conditions, and gravel floor levels within the space.

The new funding secured was a celebratory moment for the pooch parents that frequent the park.

"We're ecstatic, we're happy, we're moving in the right direction," Spencer Badesch, a dog owner who lives near the park and who took a leading role in advocating for improvements, told Patch about the secured funding. "I think the voter response during the Participatory process shows how active our dog owner community is."