PLAYLAND/*ALL* COUNTY PARKS SUFFER UNDER ASTORINO

According to a recent report in the Journal News, Playland isn't the only County Park feeling the strain of having Rob Astorino in charge of things.

This really is the crux of the current problem at Playland: A guy in charge who just doesn't see any value in ANY of the properties in the amazing Westchester County Parks system.  He has completely discarded the concept that parks are publicly owned AMENITIES and not profit-driving private BUSINESSES.

“Westchester's parks system already generates far more revenue than most public park systems in the country. Between its golf courses, the amusement park at Playland, the County Center and fees for programs and events, the parks cover about 70 percent of their costs. The national average is about 23 percent, said parks Deputy Commissioner Peter Tartaglia. Despite that, the parks budget has been cut 13 percent since 2009, to about $48 million, and the number of staff members has fallen from 335 in 2009 to 257 this year.”

(Read the full LoHud/Journal News article b Liz Ganga by clicking here.)

This last line highlights yet another serious problem with the cuts at Playland: In the course of Astorino’s calculated financial strangulation of the park, they keep cutting back on staff by not replacing people who retire every year. Playland is more short-staffed every season because they will not hire anyone to replace the people who have left. This is an immediate safety concern and a long term safety concern.  In there here and now the employees there are stretched thin, expected to do the job of many with less bodies and a cap on their overtime. At some point, no matter how hard they work or how good they are at their jobs (and they work VERY hard and are VERY good at their jobs) this becomes humanly impossible.

In the long-range, if you don't bring new people in now to learn the irreplaceable institutional knowledge regarding how that park runs and how those classic rides and ancient infrastructure need to be cared for (with kid gloves) - NOW while there are still skilled employees there with decades of experience to teach and pass down - you will end up with a future generation of workers at the Park who will not be able to maintain it. This is a seriously short-sighted approach to "saving money" and in the long run may very well cause serious safety problems for the public. Nice going Rob Astorino.

But that’s really nothing new. Rob Astorino has a long history of tinkering with Public Safety at Playland.  Reportedly years ago when he was a Legislator and sat on the Parks Committee he repeatedly refused to vote to authorize funds to paint the Dragon Coaster.  That’s not just a COSMETICS issue. The wooden Coaster needs to have a special kind of paint applied every couple of years to seal the wood and protect it from rot and decay. Foregoing this procedure or delaying it could have caused a catastrophe.  My understanding is that as a Legislator he was thrown off the Parks Committee over this issue.

He wants to spend $80,000 of taxpayer money hiring Dan Biederman – a Co-Signer to the original and now FAILED Sustainable Playland plan- to “evaluate” the park and let us know what’s wrong with it – and this job has not been sent out for bids – when we’ve already spent around $250k on a previous evaluation a few years ago. What’s Dan Biederman going to tell us for $80k that we don’t already know? The marketing budget is at around $500-$600k – the same as it’s been SINCE 1988 – when the suggestion 8 years ago was that it should be at around $1.8 MILLION.  We saw when Marriott Corp. came in during the early 1980’s, put up the gates and started charging an admission fee that it was a colossal failure. The gates came down, the park thrived again. The gates went back up, attendance has again declined. It's always been in his power as CE to take those admission gates down and work with the Legislators and Parks Dept. towards again making Playland the open-access walk-through public park it was designed to be. No new investment in refreshing the rides has been made in years and none of the concessionaires can get more than a one year contract, so coupling that with the decline in attendance and their subsequent reduced income they’ve left in droves and we now have many “empty store fronts” throughout the park and on the Boardwalk where games and attractions used to be.  Which drives attendance down even more. We're no longer offering a top quality product or experience at the Park. Any good business person knows you’ve got to spend money to make money.

And for the record, this year's 4th of July Fireworks display at Playland was a disgrace. If he's so keen on Public-Private partnering for the parks, why doesn't Rob Astorino get some  of the many Fortune 500 companies reaping all kinds of lovely tax benefits for staying in Westchester County to band together and sponsor the Playland Fireworks budget every year so that we can get a quality program? Neri's Bakery footed the bill for Port Chester's show and it was out of this world...THEY hired GRUCCI!  For more on the fireworks discussion, click here.

Wasting taxpayer money. Strangling our incredible parks system financially. Refusing to do hiring and up-keep in order to maintain safe conditions.  Awarding contracts with no bidding process.  This is great leadership?