Evaluating the Impact of Budget Reductions to the Department of Parks and Recreation’s Tree Maintenance Program in Brooklyn

In Spring 2011 and Fall 2011, Capstone groups focused on making recommendations for the implementation of the DAC, and explored an initial analysis, focused on preventing catch basin clogging. This group will build on the recommendations, and methodology developed in the Spring to conduct a larger analysis of a topic of interest to the City and will make recommendations about how the City can change its operations in the selected area to improve its efficiency and effectiveness.

The Capstone team was tasked with evaluating the impact of budget reductions to the Department of Parks and Recreation’s (DPR’s) tree maintenance program in Brooklyn, which amounts to approximately $ 21 million citywide. To achieve this, the team developed a model that estimates the tradeoff between the decrease in costs of scheduled pruning operations resulting from city budget cut and the increase in reactive work due to 311 service requests for pruning for overgrown trees. The team combined microeconomic theory with geographic information system and quantitative analysis to provide actionable policy recommendations to optimize resources allocated to tree maintenance operations in the city.