How New York City can do its part to save and protect precious parkland

This year, our city will spend more money on the NYPD’s overtime budget than our entire 30,000-acre park system. And the Parks Department continues to be outpaced by other city agencies.  New York City’s parks should be the best in the world, but we invest in what we prioritize — this budget once again showed that the administration is not prioritizing the Mayor’s promise to provide adequate funding for critical parks maintenance and operations.

Recognizing our greenspaces are essential to the economic vitality and environmental resiliency of our city, and the health and wellbeing of all New Yorkers, the City Council pushed against the administration’s proposed budget cuts, seeking 1,000 new, permanent jobs that are urgently needed to keep our parks clean, safe and accessible.

We thank the Council for its negotiations to secure 100 new positions and funding an additional 50 temporary staff, while also emphasizing that park staffing still remains lower than pre-pandemic levels. Knowing the Council’s commitment and hopeful that the ‘Get Stuff Done’ Mayor will follow through on the commitment he reiterated this year to dedicate 1% of the city budget to NYC Parks, greenspace advocates, and those seeking a more equitable and just city will continue the work to hold our leaders accountable.”

FACTS & FIGURES to ponder:

Due to decades of disinvestment, NYC Parks are underfunded

• NYC Parks manages more than 30,000 acres of parks and natural areas — one of the largest parks systems in the country;
• Yet over the past two decades, the Parks Department has received an average of 0.57% of the city’s budget annually — short of the 1% that would be needed to properly fund NYC Parks.
  • The agency employed 11,000 full-time equivalent employees in the late 1960s, but only 8,200 in Fiscal Year 2023, of which 4,830 are full-time, permanent employees.
• Other…