BY Elizabeth Goldstein Queens Chronicle
The importance of our city’s urban green spaces cannot be overstated, as they are essential to our well-being and health and are critical infrastructure in the fight to address climate change and support our long-term sustainability goals.
As a resident of Jackson Heights for over six years, I know how vital local parks and open spaces are to my neighbors and their families. They serve as our community’s backyard: a place to relax and gather our thoughts, to catch up with friends, and respite for kids (and pets!) to release some extra energy. On any warm evening during the summer, the newly expanded Travers Park is brimming with families from every corner of this diverse neighborhood having dinner, playing games and enjoying music.
Ensuring our parks and urban forest are properly maintained is no small feat. NYC Parks provides maintenance to over 30,000 acres of public parkland, operates community and recreation centers that are part of the city’s lifeblood and administers crucial public programs for New Yorkers of all ages.
In addition, NYC Parks maintains nearly 54 percent of the city’s total urban forest, which helps improve public and environmental health by mitigating the heat island effect, removing air pollution and supporting biodiversity. The Municipal Art Society is proud to be a member of Forest for All NYC, a coalition of over 140 organizations pushing for the city to reach at least 30 percent tree canopy coverage citywide by 2035 in an equitable way. This imperative and achievable goal necessitates additional investment now to return greater cost-savings in the future.
It is vital that NYC Parks is sufficiently funded to serve New Yorkers throughout the five boroughs, across all seasons and for years to come. Unfortunately, the mayor’s latest preliminary budget would cut nearly $55 million from the NYC Parks budget. This will mean cuts to essential maintenance programs and job layoffs that jeopardize the quality of our parks. Even as the mayor has begun to restore proposed cuts to other agencies, NYC Parks has seen a larger decrease in its proposed budget. That’s simply unacceptable to the millions of families who benefit from these spaces every day!
The continued underfunding of NYC Parks also contributes to growing inequality across our communities. In order for our parks to serve as backyards for millions of New Yorkers, they must be maintained to be fully enjoyed. To fulfill Mayor Adams’ campaign promise, the city budget must allocate 1 percent to NYC Parks and retain prepandemic staffing levels to effectively uphold these vital public resources. We know that so many other large U.S. cities commit this level of funding for their residents, so why not us?
My local Council member and Parks Committee Chair Shekar Krishnan said it best: “We need to make sure that every New Yorker can step outside their front door and have access to a well maintained and high-quality park. That’s not a luxury, that is not a privilege, that is a right.”
Let’s hope Mayor Adams hears our calls for 1 percent of our city’s total budget going to protect, maintain and improve NYC Parks. Our city’s backyards depend on it!
Original article here.