{"id":213,"date":"2024-05-21T19:01:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-21T19:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/shaun-abreu\/?p=213"},"modified":"2024-06-11T20:32:55","modified_gmt":"2024-06-11T20:32:55","slug":"west-side-rag-composting-axed-from-popular-uws-farmers-markets-after-city-budget-cuts-local-politician-fights-to-restore-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/shaun-abreu\/2024\/05\/21\/west-side-rag-composting-axed-from-popular-uws-farmers-markets-after-city-budget-cuts-local-politician-fights-to-restore-funding\/","title":{"rendered":"West Side Rag: Composting Axed From Popular UWS Farmer\u2019s Markets After City Budget Cuts; Local Politician Fights To Restore Funding"},"content":{"rendered":"

Read the full article here.<\/a><\/p>\n

By Gus Saltonstall<\/strong><\/p>\n

Composting will no longer be available at two popular Upper West Side farmer\u2019s markets due to city budget cuts.<\/p>\n

GrowNYC,<\/a> which runs farmer\u2019s markets across the city, including at West 79th Street and Columbus Avenue<\/a> and West 97th Street<\/a> between Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues, announced that both had the final day of their compost programming last week as the nonprofit has run out of funding, according to the nonprofit and elected officials.<\/p>\n

In the fall, Mayor Eric Adams required all city agencies to reduce their costs in preparation for upcoming budget cuts for the 2025 fiscal year. The Department of Sanitation chose to slash $3 million in funding for its Community Compost Program, which nonprofits such as GrowNYC relied on.<\/p>\n

At the time, GrowNYC was able to continue its work thanks to private donations, but that money has now run out and the organization was forced to lay off 90 employees on Monday, according to Upper West Side and Morningside Heights Councilmember Shaun Abreu.<\/p>\n

The layoffs will also correspond with GrowNYC shutting down more of its programs in the coming weeks. GrowNYC is stopping its food scrap collection, despite a petition<\/a> with more than 50,000 signatures in support of it.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Abreu, who is chair of the Committee on Sanitation and Solid Waste Management, helped organize a rally at City Hall to fight for the restoration of the funding for composting and other green initiatives in the upcoming budget. Abreu is specifically asking for $11 million in total funding in the upcoming budget for community composting, which includes restoring $7.1 million for composting operations and providing the previously promised $4 million for building out additional community composting processing sites.<\/p>\n

The rally took place before a joint executive budget hearing<\/a> within City Hall on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cBudget cuts are already eliminating green jobs and disrupting the good practices we\u2019ve been asking New Yorkers to build,\u201d Abreu said in a news release. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t make sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

We won\u2019t know until the budget is finalized next month what funding will remain for composting in New York City, if any, but West Side Rag will follow the developments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Read the full article here.<\/a><\/p>\n

By Gus Saltonstall<\/strong><\/p>\n

Composting will no longer be available at two popular Upper West Side farmer\u2019s markets due to city budget cuts.<\/p>\n

GrowNYC,<\/a> which runs farmer\u2019s markets across the city, including at West 79th Street and Columbus Avenue<\/a> and West 97th Street<\/a> between Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues, announced that both had the final day of their compost programming last week as the nonprofit has run out of funding, according to the nonprofit and elected officials.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

READ MORE<\/a><\/small><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":152,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/shaun-abreu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/shaun-abreu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/shaun-abreu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/shaun-abreu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/152"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/shaun-abreu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/shaun-abreu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/shaun-abreu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/shaun-abreu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/council.nyc.gov\/shaun-abreu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}