By Ezekiel Maben

On Jan. 12, Mayor Eric Adams submitted his proposed budget for fiscal year 2024, which runs from July 2023 to June 2024. Much like last year, public focus has been drawn to proposed cuts to education. These cuts will affect millions of people and are worth highlighting, but comparatively little focus has been paid to how Adams has once again broken his promise to provide the New York City Parks Department with more than $1 billion in operational funding.

Employees of the Parks Department, however, are still paying attention. Every time they have to make a choice between repairing a broken water fountain, saving a dying tree, or fixing a rusting swing set, they remember.

Over the past few years, I have run numerous volunteer projects with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, and I know firsthand how thin budgets make the parks system dependent on outside support. The Parks Department personnel I’ve worked with care about their parks and sacrifice to make them serve their communities. They put in extra hours and, in some cases, invest their own money to improve the public lands they care for.

They deserve more than empty words. They deserve funding now.

When Adams promised to set the Parks Department operations budget to 1% of the city’s overall budget during the 2021 mayoral campaign, park advocates were excited. The city's 30,000 acres of parkland have needed support for years. Estimates say that the city's park system has outstanding repairs worth over $5.8 billion. On top of this, the parks system employs less than 20% of the foresters needed to adequately maintain its extensive network of more than 666,000 street trees. These problems only compound with each year of underinvestment. Last year Adams did not keep this promise. His proposed budget for fiscal year 2024 provides less than half of 1% of the operating budget for parks.

Failing to increase the NYC Parks’ operating budget lets down the city’s vulnerable communities most of all. Parks in high-income parts of the city have well-funded conservancy organizations to support them, but the working-class communities of color that most need support rely primarily on the city to maintain their parks. Underinvestment in parks and tree cover is inherently a social issue. Functioning greenspaces can improve life outcomes in surrounding communities, while underfunded and crumbling parks can lower property values, harbor pests, and contribute to a sense of abandonment by the city.

Opponents of raising the Parks Department's budget may counter that NYC Parks have received $488 million in capital funding this year. While this is true, it only tells part of the story. Capital investments in parks are not static — they need constant upkeep. New trees need maintenance and watering to grow to maturity, upgraded pools require lifeguards to staff them, and new bathrooms need cleaning and repairing. Capital funding without operations funding adds more upkeep needs to an already stretched system.

Indeed, providing 1% of the discretionary budget to our parks is not just about addressing current issues. It is about the future. Expanding funding now means that park infrastructure stays in good repair and does not require extensive maintenance in the future. Expanded funding now also means that fewer street trees die, and our urban canopy is more equitable and prepared for the challenges of a warmer century.

The mayor says that he will increase the Parks budget by the end of his time in office, but that could be 4-8 years away. Every year the Parks Department does not receive sufficient funding is another year where more weeds grow, bathrooms fall apart, and pools close down from lack of staffing.

As the city's byzantine budget process begins, I hope that the mayor and city council will find the political courage to be true to their word and provide at least 1 billion dollars for park maintenance and operations funding.

But in the event that they do not, it will be up to the citizens of New York City to make our voices heard and support the parks that so support us. Call your council member and encourage them to support 1% funding for parks; and call the mayor, to remind him of the commitment he made in 2021.

Adams can try and postpone his promise to our parks all he wants. But New Yorkers will not let him break it.

Ezekiel Maben (MPA-ESP ’23) is a staff writer with a passion for public spaces and ecosystem conservation.

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