A handful of Birmingham residents spoke at the City Council’s public budget hearing, urging city officials to invest more in parks and infrastructure.

Daniel Christiansen, who lives on Second Avenue North, said he visited Fairview Park recently and saw benches with nails poking through and others with the seats ripped away.

“I can’t imagine that there are many public places in our city that aren’t in need of funding,” he said.

Christiansen also told council members he would like to see more equity in garbage collection. He said some residents must pay a private contractor to have their garbage collected, while others have their trash services subsidized by the city.

“That is something I don’t see how the city can afford to subsidize certain members of its community and penalize others, especially with something like trash,” he said.

Christiansen also included compliments in his remarks, commending city leaders for putting bike lanes on Rugby Avenue as well as the city’s $16 million investment in public transit.

The council is considering a $591 million budget proposal that Mayor Randall Woodfin submitted for next year. The deadline for adopting a budget is  June 20.

Susan Palmer, who lives in the Central Park area, said District 8 is in desperate need of street paving and stormwater runoff improvements.

“On 52nd street by the house … (in the 1700 block) we have a stormwater drainage that has been repaired 10 times — repeat, 10 times — right now. It has caved in … there’s a hole with cones around it. We need an emergency repair as of today,” she said.

One resident also made a comment via conference call that the city should have taken the $15 million it spent on Family Fun Center Crossplex and instead invested it in Birmingham’s parks and recreation centers.