Creating More Green Spaces
This initiative comes directly from the voters of North Greenbush. During my time meeting residents and neighbors, I repeatedly got the request for more parks, more green spaces, and more places of recreation for our residents and visitors to our town.
What is a green space? Ideally, we're talking about public parks, with grass, walking paths, trees, bushes/hedges, etc. These spaces should have their own parking, as to not jam up our roads or put undue stress on residents who park on the street already. Some examples of a green space would be a dog park, a fenced in area where local dogs are able to run free under their owner's supervision; a community garden, where residents of North Greenbush can volunteer time to cultivating beautiful flowers, tress, or vegetables, able to be viewed or consumed; or a simple grass park with benches. Whatever your vision or desire is, the leaders of North Greenbush should be engaged in hearing all ideas that bring a net positive to our community--I would wholehearted supportive of any and all ideas because I belive that community spaces (especially green ones) are wonderful.
Where would this green space go? Thankfully, the beauty of green spaces is that they don't need to be very big. We can start very small, working on green spaces with footprints no bigger than 2ft x 2ft. We can also go big, with green spaces on 5+ acres. Without overstepping boundaries, I would engage the community to take a vote on where they think a large community green space would be best utilized. On the smaller side, I would ask all public office buildings to look for creative ways to build green spaces anywhere they can. Underutilized section of land? Green space. Bare railing? Add a flower box.
Who would pay for this and maintain it? Thankfully, there are multiple resources through the EPA and NYSERDA that can contribute to funding our new green space initiative. On the back end, once these spaces are complete, I would look to create more jobs, under the purview of the town, to maintain and work on these green spaces. However, in some places, I would look to the community to "own" the spaces local to them. Where I grew up, there were multiple "islands" that separated opposing lanes of traffic. These spaces were often underutilized until local residents took it upon themselves to plant flowers, install benches, and "own" the space because of their proximity to it. My greatest vision is a community engaged in helping each other; I want a community who builds literal and metaphorical bridges to connect us to each other and our purpose of spending our time in life in a positive way.
