King-of-New-York OP t1_j6wos4j wrote on February 2, 2023 at 12:47 PM

“Others have pointed to the ballooning costs of basic garden work, after agency leaders testified last year that the cost of planting a single tree had grown to $3,600. By comparison, Jersey City paid around $500 per tree in 2018.

The problem stems in part from the limited number of contractors available to perform tree work. After landscaping firm Dragonetti Brothers was indicted in a massive insurance fraud scam, the city was forced to suspend pruning services in Brooklyn and Queens for most of last year, Brooklyn Paper first reported.

Despite the legal problems, the city went back to the scandal-scarred contractor, awarding them several multimillion-dollar pruning contracts. Dragonetti Brothers' work in Brooklyn resumed earlier this month.”

———- MTA levels of corruption there.

mowotlarx t1_j6wtl0e wrote on February 2, 2023 at 1:30 PM

The kicker is Parks does have a lot of in-house designers, engineers and gardeners. There's no reason any city money should be given to private contractors when we could just increase the budget and fulfill projects with in-house staff. The real issue (outside of city staff fleeing and not being rehired) is procurement. Supplies are increasingly expensive and the city has pretty strict rules when it comes to who they can buy from.

King-of-New-York OP t1_j6wx2pn wrote on February 2, 2023 at 1:59 PM

Procurement is definitely an issue that needs addressing.

mowotlarx t1_j6wxs97 wrote on February 2, 2023 at 2:04 PM

DOT is having the same issues with gathering supplies to do repairs. It's hard enough to get what they need in a timely manner, but they're also being asked to use the cheapest materials and solutions possible (hence why we almost never have fully protected bike lanes when they know we should).

Karrick t1_j71zkew wrote on February 3, 2023 at 2:34 PM

Even at pre-pandemic-staffing-cut levels Parks had nowhere near enough staff to pick up all the tree work that is cintracted out. The backlog on tree inspections, for example, was enormous when I left. That's not a knock on Forestry, there's just too few of them for the whole city... just like the rest of the Parks department.

bkornblith t1_j6wrsvw wrote on February 2, 2023 at 1:15 PM

I was going to copy those exact paragraphs into here too... what the act fuck