WASHINGTON HEIGHTS — Uptown Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez allocated about 40 percent of his discretionary funds to programs for youth, budget data shows.
Rodriguez was awarded $735,000 in city funds, which could be spent in four categories: senior services run in connection with the Department of the Aging, youth services through the Department of Youth and Community Development, anti-poverty initiatives and local projects.
In addition to the $150,000 Rodriguez awarded to youth services, which cover programs offered outside of school hours, he awarded $112,500 to local initiatives focused on young people.
Some of the local allocations included:
► $5,000 to Bike New York, which will provide a Learn to Ride program for Uptown kids along with free bike helmets.
► $20,000 to four local public schools for after-school, college-readiness and arts programming.
► $3,500 to support New York Road Runners' walking and running programs in Uptown schools.
► $5,000 for the Police Athletic League, which offers after-school and summer day camp programs at the Fort Washington Avenue Armory.
Rodriguez’s three largest single allocations went to two organizations.
He awarded $75,000 to the Catholic Charities Community Services under the anti-poverty initiative. In addition, he gave the organization another $51,000 as a local initiative to support cultural programming and operations at the Alianza Dominicana Cultural Center, which offers arts and youth programs to the Uptown community.
Catholic Charities took over several of Alianza’s contracts when the organization faced financial difficulties in 2012.
Rodriguez also awarded $36,000 to the Hispanic Federation, which boasts a membership of almost 100 Latino nonprofits.
The Hispanic Federation came under fire during last year’s budget process when its funding from the city more than quadrupled from the previous year under Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, Crain’s New York reported at the time.
One of Mark-Viverito’s chief political consultants founded and continues to represent the organization.
Earlier this year, Rodriguez took part in the participatory budget process, in which community members can vote on how $1 million in capital funding is spent in the district. Schools and parks were the big winners in that contest.
