Love Your Parks – & Recreation Department!
It’s the middle of Love Your Park @ Home, and the highlight of our day is the exciting daily activity Philadelphia Parks and Recreation (PPR) has been providing. Given everybody’s increased need for green space in the past couple months, we’re even more grateful for the essential park maintenance, tree clearing, and stewardship that PPR does on a daily basis to keep the parks open (the other place we’re allowed to visit in this time beyond essential work and the grocery store!) and humbled by the food and school supplies PPR recreation centers provide to thousands of Philadelphians affected by COVID-19.
Philadelphia Parks and Recreation’s work is essential – and we’re saddened to learn that PPR is having its budget cut by 20% as part of across the board cuts while the City of Philadelphia grapples with a $650 million shortfall due to COVID-19. All across our Commonwealth, the same thing is happening as Pennsylvania faces a $4 billion shortfall, which will demand similar sacrifices of budgets, services, and jobs in every town and city.
It’s time to take action. Here’s what you can do, today, to advocate for Philadelphia Parks & Recreation.
Call your representatives!
You can advocate for more support for the city and our parks by contacting your representatives at their office numbers below.
Pennsylvania’s Senators are Bob Casey, Jr. and Pat Toomey.
You can call Senator Toomey’s office at (202) 224-4254.
You can call Senator Casey’s office at (202) 224-6324.
You can also find your member of congress and their office number here.
Send a thank-you letter:
Finally, you can also support our unsung PPR heroes by writing them a thank you note through the Philadelphia Parks Alliance campaign: https://www.philaparks.org/thank-you