Detroit rejects deal, will close 50 parks, reduce maintenance and services at others

DETROIT — Detroit will close nearly half of its parks and reduce maintenance and other services at dozens of others after the City Council passed on a deal with the state to operate the city’s Belle Isle park, MayorDave Bing announced Friday.

Closing 50 of the city’s 107 parks will allow it to keep running Belle Isle after the Detroit City Council declined to vote on Republican Gov. Rick Snyder’s offer for the popular 985-acre island park in the DetroitRiver. The city also will reduce services at 38 other parks.

Belle Isle - about the size of 900 football fields and about 150 acres larger than New York’s Central Park - provides views of Detroit and Canada and has a maritime museumand marina, as well as woods and hiking and biking trails.

Snyder’s proposal called for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to run Belle Isle as a state park. The state would have taken on the $6.2 million annual operating costs,freeing up money for the city to use on other parks, Bing told reporters.

Bing is trying to find as many savings as possible while dealing with a budget deficit of more than $300 million. A review team is expected thismonth to report the city’s fiscal condition to Snyder, who could appoint an emergency manager if a financial emergency is found. Bing has already decreased spending, cut jobs and instituted unpaid furlough days.