The Plight of New York City’s Parks—And What You Can Do to Help

A few weeks ago, a couple of friends and I met up for a socially distant picnic at a park in Brooklyn. I was excited; I’d gone to the park a few times before the pandemic for small social gatherings and was expecting a picturesque lunch beneath the trees, surrounded by chirping birds and lush scenery. This expectation was not the case. The once-beautiful park had become a wasteland. The grass was uncut and overgrown, overflowing trash cans reeked of rotting food, and the park was littered with trash—suffice it to say that the visit was far from idyllic.

I was upset but not surprised. This pandemic has changed nearly every aspect of our lives—the education system being entirely redesigned from the ground up to accommodate newly implemented health regulations, socially distant visits are the new norm, sanitizing is a daily routine, and masks are the hottest item of the season. It has meant unprecedented loss, too: the global economy has continued on its seemingly neverending downward spiral, with over 13 million Americans unemployed, and the coronavirus has claimed the lives of 200,000 Americans and counting. In these uncertain times, many New Yorkers searching for salvation have turned to the outdoors.

New Yorkers desperate to leave their homes in the scorching summer heat have turned to one of the few outdoor oases still open citywide: parks. A must-have for most major urban centers, parks serve a variety of purposes, the foremost being the provision of beautiful outdoor spaces that are available in an efficient and sustainable way. They continue to be some of the most universally accessible resources for all citizens, regardless of socioeconomic status, race, or background—a rarity in a time filled with so much discrimination, bias, and hatred. Parks are the heart of the city, a physical representation of the beautiful mix of culture and humanity that our shining metropolis is so famous for. Parks are the city’s highlights—testaments to its resilience and enduring legacy. They are beautiful, accessible, and clean. Or so we think.

In recent months, the influx of visitors due to the pandemic has put an immense strain on parks system, making it difficult to keep up with the soaring demand for clean outdoor spaces. As a result, parks have deteriorated. Grass is uncut and knee-high, trash cans are far past capacity, and park grounds are filthy. This predicament begs the question: why has the city let such a valuable resource go unmaintained, especially when New Yorkers need them the most? Unsurprisingly, the answer is money.

Already-struggling New York City finances have been hit hard by the COVID-induced economic collapse, and the city has been forced to enact some nasty budget cuts in an attempt to compensate, including an $84 million-budget cut to the parks system. The cuts comprise about 14 percent of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation’s (NYCDPR) $587 million annual budget—a staggering number considering that the department is responsible for over 30,000 acres of properties, around 14 percent of the city. The effects of these budget cuts are more than noticeable and have only been exacerbated by their unfortunate timing (summer is the busiest season for parks and tends to be the time when the most upkeep is required). In past years, upkeep for New York City parks during the summer was carried out by around 1,700 seasonal workers, who made sure that parks were clean and ready for use. This year, however, seasonal workers were nowhere to be seen. Instead, the NYCDPR had 45 percent fewer staff to manage parks and saw maintenance hours reduced by 25,000 hours a week.

With dwindling staff numbers, funding that has been stretched far too thin, and an ever-increasing need for well-maintained and usable parks, the NYCDPR has been scrambling to find a solution to ensure that New Yorkers are able to experience the outdoors, even in a pandemic. But they should not have to. Park management is just as much our responsibility as it is the city’s, and a little help can go a long way—after all, we are the people who use them.

The first step visitors can take to improve park conditions is to adhere to the parks’ department guidelines, which provide an overview of the NYCDPR’s expectations for visitors, outlining fines for littering, disorderly conduct, and abusing property and park grounds. These rules are not strictly enforced because the NYCDPR does not have enough staff to fine visitors who violate park policies. A possible solution to this issue is to establish a department that would oversee the enforcement of these rules, thereby improving the condition of parks substantially and generating much more revenue. Unfortunately, financing such an endeavor would be incredibly difficult given the department’s distressing fiscal state, and thus, this initiative may just be a project for the future.

In the meantime, there is much the everyday park visitor can do to contribute aside from following park guidelines. The parks department has recently started a campaign that urges visitors to pick up after themselves in order to limit the amount of trash left behind and minimize the workload of paid park staff, essentially asking visitors to be conscientious of themselves and their surroundings.

However, maintaining a clean park environment for yourself and others is not the only way to keep parks alive and well. Making a donation of any amount to the parks system goes a long way toward providing badly needed resources, supplementing the recent budget cuts, and providing funding for the hiring of more staff and purchasing of more park equipment to ensure that facilities function properly—all measures that would only further enrich the experience of everyday park visitors.

For those feeling more generous, the parks department also offers other tax-deductible donation alternatives, including programs like Adopt-a-Bench and Dedicate a Tree. Wonderful ways to support your local park while also leaving something meaningful of your own in the process, these programs allow park lovers to place plaques with inscribed messages on a bench or tree in return for sizable donations. The plaques will be maintained by park staff for years to come, allowing donors to have their own little piece of the park and creating a long lasting memory to be enjoyed by generations of New Yorkers.

Monetary donations are not the only donations accepted, though—those unable to support parks financially can provide time and labor. By volunteering at local parks or working with a partner organization, students and others can work to improve park conditions by picking up litter, planting trees, gardening, and maintaining park infrastructure. Signing up to volunteer is simple and fast—a few clicks and you’re ready. Don’t continue standing idly by when there is a dire situation and a clear solution—parks belong to us and it’s our responsibility to keep them beautiful and usable.

For many of us, the pandemic has been a time to re-experience the simple pleasures in life like parks. Do your part to make sure they’re still there tomorrow—it shouldn’t be too difficult to have a little common decency.