Op-Ed | Mayor Adams needs to fulfill his NYC Parks promise

Back in 2021, Mayor Adams ran on a campaign promise to increase NYC Parks’ budget to 1% of the city’s overall budget, but here we are in 2023, and the Parks Department continues to run on fumes at 0.6%. Mayor Adams must make good on his promise.

For nearly 40 years, NYC Parks has functioned on an austerity budget. As a result, they have had to do more with less: Less park enforcement, less maintenance, less money for capital improvement, less staff, less equipment and fewer vehicles. This year, Parks even has less toilet paper and fewer garbage bags!

New Yorkers must demand more. We deserve a park system that is safe, clean and equitable.

While NYC’s budget for Parks is hundreds of millions of dollars more than any other U.S. city, the budget for Parks in other large cities is 2% of the overall budget, on average. In NYC, parks make up 14% of its land mass — and yet, the budget for parks is a paltry half a percent. Simply put, it is just not enough money to run an agency of the size and scope that NYC Parks is asked to maintain. Van Cortlandt Park alone is 1,146 acres and serves nearly three million visitors a year. Yet, on an average day, our park might have two Park Enforcement Patrol officers covering the whole park.

As we gear up for another summer, permit applications are pouring in. Community members will once again look to parks to be…