The Play Fair for Parks campaign is a multi-year advocacy effort to elevate parks and open spaces issues in NYC and identify comprehensive citywide solutions.
City parks cover 14% of NYC, but the NYC Parks budget is just 0.5% of the total City budget. NYC’s parks are critical infrastructure that have been overlooked and underfunded for too long. The pandemic has laid bare the inequities in NYC's park system and highlighted our dire need to fund our parks and open spaces and build more to ensure equitable access for all New Yorkers.
Our Coalition of 300+ organizations and groups believe that parks and open spaces must be funded and invested in to create a more equitable and livable city.
Join us - sign up for our email newsletter today!
The Play Fair campaign was co-founded by New Yorkers for Parks, the New York City Council, the New York League of Conservation Voters, and DC 37, the NYC Parks workers’ union.
2020 brought unprecedented challenges but we adapted to continue our advocacy. Our Coalition's campaigning in-person, by phone and email, and on Zoom resulted in 300 secured jobs for NYC Parks workers, despite the agency taking a 14% cut of $84 million.
Of those 300 secured jobs, 150 were made permanent and 150 were renewed just for the year – we'll continue to advocate for those 150 to become permanent, too.
We kicked off the Play Fair campaign in 2019 and succeeded in getting a historic increase of $44 million into the NYC Parks FY20 budget. We held two rallies in February and May attended by over 200 New Yorkers. The $44 million broke down like this:
Our Coalition has over 300 organizations and groups.
Add your group or organization to the Play Fair Coalition!
The Play Fair Coalition includes: