Julie Menin & Keith Powers Outline $35 Million Budget Infusion Into UES

In partnership with Mayor Eric Adams and City Council speaker Adrienne Adams, District 5 Council Member Julie Menin and District 4 Council Member Keith Powers have snagged $35 million for UES projects.

Some notable additions include nearly $2.8 million to reconstruct the hockey, basketball, and pickleball courts at Carl Schurz Park. The pickelball courts have recently been a site of prolonged local drama, after pickleball players successfully lobbied Community Board 8 and the Parks Department to paint multiple courts for their insurgent community. This has spurred the complaints of some non-pickler residents, who say it cuts into the free-range play area that kids once enjoyed.

The Central Park Conservancy, which oversees the Harlem Meer, can expect $2.1 million to bolster the fabled lake.

Park improvements will also be doled out to the Twenty-Four Sycamores Park playground near 60th St., with playground upgrades, installed security lighting, and revamped basketball and handball courts in the pipeline.

Cultural mainstays also saw a healthy cash infusion, with a total of $12 million to be split by big cultural institutions including The Met, the Guggenheim, and the Park Avenue Armory. The 92nd Y’s Art Center received $2.5 million dollars alone.

Schools ranging from the Ella Baker School to Hunter College can expect to see hundreds of thousands of dollars for everything from gymnasium and tech upgrades to library renovations.

Housing and anti-poverty nonprofits such as NYCHA’s Isaacs Center, Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, and the James Lenox House will obtain slices of a $4 million dollar pot.

In a nod to community desires that fall outside generalized institutional funding, $200,000 will go towards tree-planting throughout the neighborhood and on Roosevelt Island.

Lauding the budget win, Council Member Menin said: “I am thrilled to secure this vital funding for our district that we deserve as a part of this great city. Our parks, schools, libraries, hospitals, community centers, public housing, and streets will now receive much-needed support and investment. We are excited for the future of the East Side of Manhattan, and the impact of these projects will be felt for generations to come.”

Council Member Powers echoed that sentiment by stating that he was “pleased to have secured millions of dollars that will benefit Manhattan’s East Side and make our neighborhoods an even better place to call home. The projects chosen–ranging from parks to schools and cultural institutions–were carefully selected and the improvements will be felt across the district.”