Councillor Giovanni Recupero blasted the City’s past administrations for not investing fully in parks within his district like Quigley Park – noting that more resources were dedicated to a dog park elsewhere than to the heavily-used park in his dense neighborhood.
City Manager Tom Ambrosino said the current administration would prioritize Quigley and Bosson Parks in the next round of funding.
“The previous administration had no regard for the people living in that area,” he said. “The people are just as good as anyone else. They deserve to have a park like everyone else and a dog park is worth more than them…That’s beyond comprehension – even a dog park. A dog park was worth more than a human park, Quigley Park.”
His dissatisfaction came originally at a previous meeting when he asserted that Quigley Park had been ignored for years because it was a mostly Hispanic and immigrant neighborhood. He had asked for investment figures in the parks, and on Monday night – he elaborated on what he had found.
Those numbers indicated that many of the parks – paid for with state grant money and City funds – had come in at costs of $800,000 or $900,000 to refurbish. Meanwhile, Quigley Park only got an investment of $200,000 in 2014.
He said that came only when he told them a wall needed to be fixed as it was dangerous.
However, the biggest indignity to Recupero was the larger investment in the dog park than in Quigley.
“We have here $279,868 for the dog park and Quigley Park gets $200,000,” he said. “What are you saying? So, what you’re saying is people in that area aren’t worth more than a dog park.”
He said he wanted to thank Ambrosino for prioritizing those parks and righting what he felt was a wrong from the past.