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World-Traveling Parks Dept. Boss Finally Books Meeting With Union Sq. Group

By James Fanelli | November 4, 2014 7:43am
 City Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver has traveled to Spain, England, Singapore and South Africa since he took office. His frequent travels has irritated some community groups trying to get meetings with him about park issues.
Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver Frequently Travels The Globe
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UNION SQUARE — After months of ignoring its requests, the city's globe-trotting Parks Department commissioner has finally agreed to meet with a community group — a day after DNAinfo New York asked the agency about his extensive international travel and complaints about his inaccessibility.

Carol Greitzer, a board member of the advocacy group Union Square Community Coalition, said that after five months of asking Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver to meet, the agency finally called her on Friday to set up an appointment.

She received the call a day after DNAinfo New York contacted the Parks Department about complaints from community groups — particularly Greitzer's — that Silver was too busy to meet but had time to make frequent trips abroad.

She said during Friday's call the Parks Department offered her two possible days in early December to meet with Silver. Greitzer said her group is eager to discuss the future of Union Square's pavilion and recent reports that the restaurant there is closing after being open for only six months.

Still, she remains skeptical that Silver will actually show up.

"Of course, I assume that when we get to the meeting, we'll get there and the commissioner will have some emergency and not be there," she said.

Greitzer said Parks initially told her that Silver could meet with USCC in August, but that month came and went without any appointment.

She called the Parks Department in September and as recently as last Wednesday to get a meeting — but the agency didn't respond until Friday.

Greitzer said she understood that when Silver first took his post he wouldn't immediately meet with all the community groups.

"I wasn't bothered by that. It was the constant delays after that," she said.

She added that the department only returned her calls after a reporter relayed her complaint to the agency's press office. She added: "It shouldn't be that way."

DNAinfo published a story on Monday detailing Silver's travel to eight cities on four continents since becoming commissioner in May. He has also been teaching a class every Friday at Harvard University.

Greitzer isn't the only one who has complained about having their sit-downs with Silver bumped because of his busy schedule.

In early September, he canceled a meeting at the last minute with Brooklyn Councilmen Mark Treyger and Chaim Deutsch, who wanted to discuss the replacement of the Coney Island boardwalk with concrete slabs, they said.

The Parks Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.