City Council Allots Over $25M to Improve 29 UES Projects from Parks to Museums

Over $25 million worth of city funding will go to improvements and programming on the Upper East Side, announced Council Members Julie Menin and Keith Powers on June 30. NYC Council Districts 4 and 5 will see huge improvements in public infrastructure such as schools, community centers, playgrounds, parks, hospitals and museums. Each public school in the aforementioned East Side districts, will also receive at least $50,000 in funding. These measures are part of the $112 billion NYC budget that Eric Adams and City Council speaker Adrienne Adams announced late on June 28, only days before the June 30 deadline.

In all, the two city council members unveiled 24 projects that will be funded on Manhattan’s East Side, ranging from a minimum of $100,000 right up to $7 million for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Council members Menin and Powers also secured over $3.5 million for 11 nonprofit organizations, including Asphalt Green, the 92nd Street Y, the East 86th Street Association, Friends of the East River Esplenade, and the Carneige Neighbors Association, among others.

“This investment will enhance our public safety, revitalize our green spaces, strengthen our schools and libraries, improve our healthcare facilities, and reinvigorate our community centers,” said Council Member Menin.

“These upgrades will have a lasting impact on the lives of East Side residents for years to come.”

Among the more notable recipients is the Metropolitan Museum of Art, receiving $7 million for climate control and resiliency upgrades.

St. Catherine’s Park on 67th St. and 1st Ave. will get $3.6 million to redesign its recreational activities by implementing a multi-use court. Straus News covered the historic park’s overhaul last month-- there will be a pickleball court, new play areas and furniture, new water fountains, and more starting in 2025. The park’s redesign has already been reviewed by Manhattan’s Community Board 8.

Both Carl Schurz Park and Sutton Place Park will receive $1.5 million, the former to renovate bathrooms near Gracie Mansion and the latter to install new fencing and ADA upgrades.

Roosevelt Island’s NYCH+H Coler Hospital was allotted $1.65 million to modernize heating, air conditioning, and elevator systems–a crucial upgrade as summers in the city get hotter and more unbearable.

Cultural institutions such as the 92nd Street Y’s Art Center will receive $1 million for improvements, and the Central Park Delacorte Theater will receive the same amount for bathroom renovations.

The bathrooms at Carl Schurz Park will get $1.5 million to renovate bathrooms near Gracie Mansion.

The Park Avenue Armory will also receive $1 million in funding to renovate its facility and make it more accessible.

These changes come in the wake of Mayor Adams and the City Council unveiling on June 27 a $112.4 billion budget for NYC in the 2025 fiscal year. The mayor announced that the improvements would be directed towards “assisting everyday New Yorkers.”

“Our budget will invest in early childhood education and cultural institutions, libraries and public schools, upstream and downstream approaches to public safety, help build more affordable housing that New Yorkers need and so much more,” Adams said at a press conference on July 2.

“That’s why the overwhelming number of City Council members voted on it this past weekend,” he said. The budget, after much behind the scenes wrangling between Mayor Adams and City Council speaker Adrienne Adams passed 46 to 3.