I am writing in support of the initiatives proposed by Mayor Bloomberg's PlaNYC 2030 to increase open space and improve public health, recreational opportunities, and quality of life for New York. New York City needs this plan in order to combat many of New York's biggest health epidemics such as asthma, obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.

The three primary approaches to ensure that nearly every New Yorker lives within a 10-minute walk of a park by 2030 include:

1. Make existing sites available to more New Yorkers. This includes opening schoolyards across the city as public playgrounds, allowing athletic teams across the city to use existing fields and complexes, and completing at least one major underdeveloped park site in every borough.

2. Expand usable hours at existing sites. This includes converting asphalt sites into multi-purpose fields and installing new lighting that allows for nighttime use of existing fields.

3. Re-imagine the public realm. The City will create new or enhance existing public plazas in every community and will green the cityscape through tree plantings and expanding the Greenstreets program.

In order to improve quality of life in New York City, I support PlaNYC's parks and open spaces initiatives.

Thank you.