Neutral Ground Maintenance in Lakeview
With large swaths of District A, primarily Lakeview, devastated and with the many neutral grounds in these neighborhoods already growing wild even before the summer, do you feel that Parks & Parkways will be able to keep up with maintenance and do you feel that it is even important to do so? If so, how will you support and/or direct Parks & Parkways to maintain these neutral grounds?
Jay Batt - It is essential that these kinds of quality of life issues be addressed to successfully integrate the public/private revitalization and restoration of the area. We must restore the quality of life to better than pre-Katrina, and I will continue to direct the necessary agencies and organizations towards achieving this objective.
Sonia Gupta - I, like other District A citizens, am very concerned about the capacity of Parks & Parkways to tend to public grounds in a timely and effective manner. We've all seen the neutral grounds covered in grass that's just getting longer by the day. I am uplifted, however, by the grassroots movements in this city, such as the Katrina Krewe, that have taken it upon themselves to maintain and clean our grounds. If a group of private individuals can undertake such a daunting task and create astonishing effects, there is no reason why city government shouldn't be able to do so. I believe that technology offers us an immense amount of opportunity in streamlining city government processes and therefore am in favor of using satellite imagery to monitory the condition of our public spaces. While some may say that maintaining public grounds should be a low priority, I have learned that when something looks good and looks well-maintained, it can foster a sense of pride in the thing as well as a desire to keep going to create even more aesthetic pleasure. If the city doesn't look maintained then it will have the psychological effect of affecting our pride in the city and will negatively affect our motivation to keep rebuilding, to keep fighting against the odds. As such, Parks & Parkways will play an important therapeutic role in this city's future: the maintenance and care of public grounds will help us all nurture our own psyches, and will promote further pride in this beautiful city.
As such, I will make sure that Parks & Parkways will be studied, along with every other city department, from head to toe to ensure that we're not adding any middlemen or inefficiency that just bogs the system down. There is no reason why our city can't have efficient public services and I will try to ensure that the council and city government as a whole creates a system whereby every public department will undergo an evaluation of its budget, employment, and task-oriented requirements to decide if anything needs to be cut or added to promote efficiency and effectiveness.
Ray Landeche - If Parks & Parkways can NOT handle the maintenance, I'm certain someone else will step to the plate and fund this green space maintenance. We clearly need to maintain our current green spaces before we create more.
David Nowak - Right now city funds are extremely tight, and with security being the number one priority in spending, I feel that it will be very tough as it stands now for Parks and Parkways to maintain these green spaces. I strongly believe that our neutral grounds and other green spaces need to be healthy for this city to be healthy. More revenue to pay for professional gardeners, as well as a city wide replanting, will be necessary for long term recovery.
Stephen Saussy - Currently, the sewerage and water department collects fees for street cleaning, garbage pickup and emergency medical service.
"According to the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans, Condensed Rules and Regulations for Customers the following is stated: "The city of New Orleans uses the "water bill" to collect fees for garbage pickup, street cleaning and emergency medical service. The current fee is $13 per month for residential customers and $26 for commercial customers. Double houses using one meter are charged $26"
Do the math and you can estimate the tens of millions of dollars being collected for these services. However, the monies ear marked for theses services is to the best of my findings are deposited into the general account. It is also my understanding that other taxes and fees collected are deposited into the general account and distributed for purposes other than those intended.
So, the first question would be to accurately determine the amount being spent on the three services mentioned above Vs the monies being collected. Having the knowledge I have about the cost of emergency medical service Vs their collection revenue, I would bet to say there is sufficient monies for maintaining parks, lanes etc... Maintaining these areas could be achieved by dividing the area into grids and determining the amount of time needed to go from the beginning of a grid to the end of the grid. Once the amount of time is determined simply repeat the process as warranted. Maintenance of equipment and weather restrictions would need to be considered.
Candidates Shelly Stephenson Midura, Sal Palmisano & Tom Wagner did not provide an answer to this question.
Jay Batt - It is essential that these kinds of quality of life issues be addressed to successfully integrate the public/private revitalization and restoration of the area. We must restore the quality of life to better than pre-Katrina, and I will continue to direct the necessary agencies and organizations towards achieving this objective.
Sonia Gupta - I, like other District A citizens, am very concerned about the capacity of Parks & Parkways to tend to public grounds in a timely and effective manner. We've all seen the neutral grounds covered in grass that's just getting longer by the day. I am uplifted, however, by the grassroots movements in this city, such as the Katrina Krewe, that have taken it upon themselves to maintain and clean our grounds. If a group of private individuals can undertake such a daunting task and create astonishing effects, there is no reason why city government shouldn't be able to do so. I believe that technology offers us an immense amount of opportunity in streamlining city government processes and therefore am in favor of using satellite imagery to monitory the condition of our public spaces. While some may say that maintaining public grounds should be a low priority, I have learned that when something looks good and looks well-maintained, it can foster a sense of pride in the thing as well as a desire to keep going to create even more aesthetic pleasure. If the city doesn't look maintained then it will have the psychological effect of affecting our pride in the city and will negatively affect our motivation to keep rebuilding, to keep fighting against the odds. As such, Parks & Parkways will play an important therapeutic role in this city's future: the maintenance and care of public grounds will help us all nurture our own psyches, and will promote further pride in this beautiful city.
As such, I will make sure that Parks & Parkways will be studied, along with every other city department, from head to toe to ensure that we're not adding any middlemen or inefficiency that just bogs the system down. There is no reason why our city can't have efficient public services and I will try to ensure that the council and city government as a whole creates a system whereby every public department will undergo an evaluation of its budget, employment, and task-oriented requirements to decide if anything needs to be cut or added to promote efficiency and effectiveness.
Ray Landeche - If Parks & Parkways can NOT handle the maintenance, I'm certain someone else will step to the plate and fund this green space maintenance. We clearly need to maintain our current green spaces before we create more.
David Nowak - Right now city funds are extremely tight, and with security being the number one priority in spending, I feel that it will be very tough as it stands now for Parks and Parkways to maintain these green spaces. I strongly believe that our neutral grounds and other green spaces need to be healthy for this city to be healthy. More revenue to pay for professional gardeners, as well as a city wide replanting, will be necessary for long term recovery.
Stephen Saussy - Currently, the sewerage and water department collects fees for street cleaning, garbage pickup and emergency medical service.
"According to the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans, Condensed Rules and Regulations for Customers the following is stated: "The city of New Orleans uses the "water bill" to collect fees for garbage pickup, street cleaning and emergency medical service. The current fee is $13 per month for residential customers and $26 for commercial customers. Double houses using one meter are charged $26"
Do the math and you can estimate the tens of millions of dollars being collected for these services. However, the monies ear marked for theses services is to the best of my findings are deposited into the general account. It is also my understanding that other taxes and fees collected are deposited into the general account and distributed for purposes other than those intended.
So, the first question would be to accurately determine the amount being spent on the three services mentioned above Vs the monies being collected. Having the knowledge I have about the cost of emergency medical service Vs their collection revenue, I would bet to say there is sufficient monies for maintaining parks, lanes etc... Maintaining these areas could be achieved by dividing the area into grids and determining the amount of time needed to go from the beginning of a grid to the end of the grid. Once the amount of time is determined simply repeat the process as warranted. Maintenance of equipment and weather restrictions would need to be considered.
Candidates Shelly Stephenson Midura, Sal Palmisano & Tom Wagner did not provide an answer to this question.
posted by TAG at 1:02 PM
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