Upper East Side Got Millions In NYC's 2022 Budget: Here's Where

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — The record-high $99 billion budget passed by the City Council last week includes millions of dollars flowing to the Upper East Side.

Billed as a "recovery budget" by Mayor Bill de Blasio and Council Speaker Corey Johnson, the spending package for the 2022 fiscal year — which starts Oct. 1 of this year — was bolstered by billions of dollars in federal stimulus funds.

Besides major citywide items like a $15 million "baby bonds program" and $4 million for CUNY scholarships, the budget also includes smaller neighborhood funding allocated by the Upper East Side's two Council members, Ben Kallos and Keith Powers.

Patch reviewed the two public budget documents and picked out some notable neighborhood funds — here they are:

$975,000 for technology upgrades at 19 Upper East Side schools

• This funding was chosen by Kallos's constituents as part of his participatory budgeting program, initially intended to fund laptops and other STEM programs at 15 schools.
• More generous than the $800,000 first promised, the funding will go to 19 schools across the Upper East Side and on Roosevelt Island.

$600,000 to renovate P.S. 527, the East Side School for Social Action, along with $300,000 for P.S. 167 Robert Wagner Middle School; $160,000 for technology upgrades at P.S. 6 Lillie D. Blake; $184,000 for P.S. 169 Robert F. Kennedy and $150,000 for P.S. 267 East Side Elementary

$275,000 to Hunter College, plus $125,000 to the Hunter College Campus Schools

$275,000 for upgrades at the Stanley M. Isaacs Neighborhood Center kitchen: a facility within the NYCHA Isaacs Houses that prepares meals for neighborhood seniors. (The kitchen underwent a $2.1 million renovation in 2019.)

$150,000 to improve the bike lane on the Roosevelt Island Bridge, which cyclists have long complained feels like "riding on a cheesegrater" due to its metal grate surface, a spokesperson for Kallos said. The renovation by the Department of Transportation will install a carbon fiber cover along the route.

$125,000 for telemetry equipment at Roosevelt Island's Coler Hospital, which had been requested by hospital staff.

$58,000 for a graffiti removal vehicle by Association of Community Employment Programs for the Homeless, allocated by Powers.

The budget also includes many smaller allocations to neighborhood groups like the Urban Outreach Center, Asphalt Green and the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, viewable in the expense budget document.

Another noteworthy item: millions in funding to renovate a neighborhood park, about which officials promise more details in the coming weeks.

"As our city recovers, it’s critical that we are adequately investing in our local neighborhoods," Powers said in a statement. "I’m proud to have secured significant funding for our schools, parks, streets, and hospitals on the East Side."

Related coverage:

• Deal Struck On $98.7B NYC 'Recovery Budget'
• These 2 Upper East Side Projects Won Ben Kallos's Budget Bucks