Dave Evans : "I am not an advocate ... but I get indignant every morning I see the benches along Riverside Drive and I see them with no wood:

Ognibene:
All of our benches have wood on them.

We spent $25 million dollar rehabilitating all the parks in my community in Queens.

I made sure money was spent so it wouldn't be an eyesore.

I made sure civic groups would get involved in keeping the parks clean and safe.

Miller:

"Fighting the notion that they are an amenity ... a luxury .. parks are a necessity .. they are at the heart of what makes our city strong, our city safe, our city livable."

He's mentioning the

"problem of vision, problem of commitment" Ad $10 million of operating budget and $25 million in capital budget ... publish crime numbers no matter how small ... encourage private and public investment ... "

Fields :
Funding : Funding has been systematically reduced and cut ... funding is the challenge.

I don't know about that bench ... I am not responsible for that.

Parks are the equalizer ... we have people who cannot afford to go away to their summer homes, who cannot leave for the weekend ... I have to toured the parks to better understand what needs to be done.

Ferrer:

Uneveness in investment ... the efforts to reclaim [ parks in Bronx ] was a multi-million dollar effort ... with capital help ... that requires 3 things :

(1) Support Intro 327 - $50 million recirculate
(2) Minimum staffing levels and maintenance levels
(3) Completely transparent review of the parks so
that everybody is involved in the

Free Speech questions involving the Great Lawn

(1) Miller : I am with the Superior Court "The grass is important ... but to reserve it for the Philarmonic

(2) Ferrer : Blades of grass are replaceable, the First Amendement is not. I agree with the support with this issue.

Is there some logic to abandoning parks because it looks like the community does not care for it?

(1) Fields : I reject that ... this is public land .. it's the city's responsibility.

(2) Ognibene : There is no such thing as a community that does not care about their parks ... if you make sure you maintain, the community will make sure to protect.

Might you take a pledge to increase the budget to 1%

(1) Miller : We need to work towards 1% but it's not going to happen in 4 years or 8 years; but we need to work towards it ... I don't we are not going to get there, that would be an enourmous increase

(2) Ferrer : Bringing the budget to more than $270 million given the forseeable deficit. I would love to see a budget to a pre-1990 level of a half-billion.

If that is the belief of the city ... made a statement of fairness and fired that person.

Brooklyn Bridge Park ... built a park but did not give a maintenance

(1) Ognibene : I don't think extorsion is the model.

(2) Miller : To establish a unit in the parks department to work with redevelopment departments to be part of the planning process.

Would you fire Mr. Benepe for the statement that

(1) Fields : No.

(2) Miller : I wouldn't want to get fired for one comment made to the press.

(3) Ognibene : I would have called them in and made them clarify it ... make sure to make hold of the press.

(4) Ferrer : If you are committed to equity and performance to all our parks, you have to hold accountable your highest ranking members of your administration for what they say.

Ban cars from parks?

(1) Fields : Support a balance between transportation and use of parks.

(2) Miller : I would come down hard on the side of car-free parks. "Parks should not be for cars."

(3) Ognibene : Parks are for people ... It doesn't make any sense to me to permit cars in parks.

(4) Ferrer : I too don't susbscribe to "incidental policing". I lean heavily in favor of car-free parks.

Question repeated :

(1) Miller : I don't know what's going to happen ... but I'd like to see some traffic studies

(2) Ferrer : There's an obvious choice ... removing vehicles is the obvious ... the sky won't fall if the cars go elsewhere

Highest juvenile crime is between 3 and 6 pm; parks staff leaves at 2 pm ; parks become biggest unsupervised after-school program

(1) Ferrer : A "parky" kept me off the tought streets ... we need more people on the parks ... that's where I want to use that $50 million consession money ... not for some parks but all of our parks

(2) Ognibene : It's not just a parks problem but a policing problem.

Bloomberg would say "The vandal is responsible for the missing bench"

(1) Miller : The broken window lesson; the same is with graffitti ... of course, if something is vandalized ... the parks department's responsibility is to replace it ... a lot of capital money is wasted instead of using money for maintenance

(2) Fields : unfortunately it happens in areas with not a lot of resources ... I also support using those $50 million in concessions for reinvestment

Would you regulate the concessions

(1) Ferrer : I would like to know why the city didn't get any of that settlement ... but that's a

(2) Fields : Transparency of the revenues being generated through the concessions

I ran into a guy running for Public Advocate and I asked him what should I ask : Wouldn't it be great to have wireless access in the parks

(1) Ognibene : I think there are more problems in our parks that need to be taken care of; but I don't know if we are ready to put wireless internet .. people go to the park to get away from wireless access.

(2) Miller : Expanding wireless access is certainly a good idea ... I am sure ... if you have more people in the parks there is less vandalism ... the biggest problems in the parks is the grass ... the bathrooms are not even open ... the problem is not vadalism but the lack of adequate maintenance

Park land without review

(1) Miller : this is public land ... the people should be involved in the process, should be part of the review process

(2) Ferrer : this precedence has existed a long time ... use of parks for storage of vehicles ... parks are for people

Excluding the west side, what specific park projects would you pursue as mayor

(1) Miller : We need more white water rafting facilities ... I am proud of cutting the funding for [ the Olympic Stadium ] ... it was never a real economic plan, never a redevelopment plan for our parks and our city.

(2) Ferrer : This mayor confused park creation with landscaping for multi-million condos ... I know what we could do with the completion of Hudson River Park ... unrestricted waterfront access for all

Community gardens vs. developers

(1) Ognibene : you cannot give up valuable real-estate ... I don't pander for votes ... but there has to be a balance.

(2) Miller : We have to have a realistic plan ... this are the gardens we are going to keep

(3) Fields : I believe

(4) Ferrer : You're looking at the guy who created the most community gardens with the help of the Botanical Gardens