Parks and Open Spaces News: New York City

Although City parks make up 14% of NYC’s land, New York City's Parks Department receives only 0.6% of the City’s total budget, leaving parks and gardens neglected and overlooked as necessary infrastructure for successful and healthy neighborhoods.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, we launched our New York City Climate Action Tracker. This powerful digital tool follows the city’s progress on its climate goals as outlined in Mayor de Blasio’s OneNYC plan.

New York City’s parks are a community staple and help fight against climate change, yet they are underfunded and often neglected.

We are releasing our NYC priorities as part of our 2019-2020 City Policy Agenda. We’re focusing on Combating Climate Change and Protecting People & Natural Resources.

Mayor de Blasio and the New York City Council agreed to a landmark new budget for the upcoming fiscal year, which includes a historic $43.5 million increase in funding for parks and green spaces. This is a major victory for our Play Fair campaign and the future of our city’s parks.

Every year, NYLCV reviews the NYC Mayor’s Executive Budget and sets budget priorities that help advance New York City’s sustainability agenda.

Along with New Yorkers for Parks, we recently announced the winners of our Earth Month photo contest, which was held to raise awareness about their Play Fair campaign.

NYLCV joined New Yorkers for Parks and DC 37 as founding members of the Play Fair for Parks Coalition to call for increasing the NYC Parks Department expense budget by $100 million next year in order to better maintain parks citywide.