Parks advocates are urging Mayor Eric Adams to lift a hiring freeze and restore hundreds of essential jobs in the city’s Parks Department, which has seen its budget slashes consistently over the last decade.
On Monday, Play Fair for Parks — an advocacy coalition led by New Yorkers for Parks, the League of Conservation Voters and municipal workers union District Council 37 — will send a letter to the mayor urging more money for parks in the annual modification to the city budget that happens every November.
Play Fair also includes dozens of local volunteer-run groups that maintain parks around the city.
“NYC Parks was the only city agency to face a significant budget reduction this year,” the letter shared with THE CITY reads. “Budget cuts have resulted in the loss of nearly 800 staffing lines and canceled essential programs, compounding decades of chronic underfunding and leaving the agency at a breaking point.”
The coalition is specifically asking for the restoration of $62 million and an end to a hiring freeze that has left many Parks Department initiatives understaffed.
“NYC Parks is operating with a headcount of nearly 1,000 fewer workers than last year, resulting in severe service disruptions and inhibiting the agency’s ability to maintain lawns, remove trash, care for trees, and provide the upkeep that our parks require,” the letter notes.
Restoring that money could allow the agency to hire 100 community coordinators who staff recreation centers, 50 gardeners, 50 administrative park and recreation managers, and 50 exterminators, among other positions, according to the coalition.
“New leadership within the administration has the chance to correct this trajectory in November and to start building the parks New Yorkers were promised and deserve,” Adam Ganser, the executive director of New Yorkers for Parks, told THE CITY.
The group also calls for $1 million for the city to develop its Urban Forest Plan, which has a goal of reaching 30% tree canopy over the next decades.
The mayor’s Office of Management and Budget will release modifications to the city’s budget sometime in November; last year, it came out in the middle of the month. At the time, Adams directed every city agency to identify ways to cut their budget — and OMB instituted a hiring freeze as part of what the mayor’s team dubbed the Program to Eliminate the Gap, or PEG.
Those budget cuts initially killed a Parks Department job corps program run in conjunction with the Human Resources Administration to get cut, but it was restored months later.
Councilmember Justin Brannan, a Democrat from Brooklyn who heads the finance committee, posted on social media that the estimated $200 million boon from the Mets and Yankees’ playoff games should trickle back down to city parks.
“I think New Yorkers are due for some positive government news from City Hall and what better way to do it than by fully funding our amazing public parks from Van Cortlandt to Tottenville Shore and creating more good union jobs!,” he told THE CITY in an email.
Councilmember Shekar Krishnan, a Democrat from Queens who chairs the parks committee, said Adams “targeted our NYC Parks for some of his most severe budget cuts this year, and our families have seen the unfortunate results.”
He called for more money to go back into the agency to hire badly-needed staff, he said.
“We will also ensure that parks staffers aren’t overburdened and have the support they deserve. And New Yorkers can have the safe, clean and resilient parks system they deserve,” he said in a statement.
An analysis by THE CITY earlier this year found the Parks Department’s share of the city’s overall budget decreased steadily since Adams became mayor.
The city’s overall budget is more than $112 billion and the Parks Department’s share is around $618 million — which is just 0.55% of the budget.
Sources within the agency said the cuts have hurt staffing the most, even as Adams has invested into capital projects like a $160 million renovation for the Brownsville Recreation Center in Brooklyn and $92 million for the Mary Cali Dalton Recreation Center on Staten Island.
“We can barely staff the ones that we have,” one insider said.
A spokesperson for the Parks Department, Meghan Lalor, said the agency is “committed to making our parks greener, cleaner, and safer” and pointed to wins in the executive budget, including money for more maintenance workers in parks.
“Under this administration, we’ve made significant investments to improve our parks and keep them safe and clean, including increasing the number of full-time staff which will allow us to extend our cleaning schedule into the evening,” she said in a statement.
Parks sources, however, said it’s still not enough staff for new initiatives and a rise in use of city parks and recreation centers.
