Parks supporters push for changes, cash

CITY HALL. The largest advocacy group for Fairmount Park released a report yesterday that shows the large economic virtues of the 9,200-acre system, including a $23 million increase in property values surrounding the city's 63-plus parks in the Fairmount system.

Mayor Michael Nutter hosted the Philadelphia Parks Alliance in his reception room to release the report on the eve of a possible vote by a City Council committee to ask voters whether to combine the park commission and the recreation department.

œWe are actually one of the few big cities across the country that has not made to move, Nutter said yesterday of combining parks and recreation under one city department. œI am supportive of the legislation that has been proposed.

For the last two years, Council people Darrell Clarke and Blondell Reynolds Brown have had a bill on the table to combine the two city bureaucracies. The proposal would have to go onto a ballot for city voters because it requires changing the City Charter.

Beyond realigning the governance of the park system, Parks Alliance Executive Director Laurent Bornfriend said funding must continue to increase ” both publicly and privately.

œState and federal environmental and recreational funds must be aggressively pursued as well as creative collaborations with local and national foundations, Bornfriend said.

Park advocates like Bornfriend are hoping the first increase in Fairmount Park's city funding in 30 years ” Mayor Michael Nutter included another $2.5 million in the 2008 budget ” will be a wake-up call to the city's philanthropic and corporate donors.

Nutter has also proposed increasing the park system's budget by nearly 50 percent over the next five years from $13 million in 2007.