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Parks at a tipping point with proposed cuts Parks are threatened by over $70 million in funding cuts — nearly $50 million in proposed cuts in Mayor Adams’ FY24 preliminary budget, plus $25 million via mandated 4% PEG cuts to agencies citywide. These combined cuts bring us dangerously close to Covid-19 funding levels, when parks saw their worst conditions on record. We’ve seen the impact of these austerity measures, and we can’t let them happen again.
We commend the City Council’s preliminary budget response, which rejects these proposed cuts and calls on the mayor to fund 1,000 additional Parks staff, plus critical resources for GreenThumb, natural areas, and forestry maintenance. Now, the Council must push back on PEG cuts and fund all 280 Play Fair positions. In response to these threats, we held a Play Fair rally at City Hall Park, hosted a City Hall Advocacy Day to lobby Council Members about parks funding needs, and issued a statement calling attention to the omission of parks in Mayor Adams' PlaNYC report. This weekend, Play Fair members throughout the city will table in their local parks to collect petition signatures. TAKE ACTION: Use our social kit to post on all platforms on Monday, April 24th! Thank you for rallying with the Play Fair Coalition!
We saw phenomenal turnout during last month's Play Fair rally at City Hall Park. A big thank you to all the Play Fair advocates, NYC Parks workers, New York City Council Members, and students who rallied with us or testified to the critical importance of NYC Parks at the preliminary budget hearing!
Among the many advocates who testified at the City Council hearing were students Emma, Camila and Jerick from Samara Community School in the Bronx, Evangeline from Fort Greene Prep, and Zoey from PS46 in Brooklyn. Click the link below to hear the powerful message they shared about parks equity and access.
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