WE DID IT!

On June 14 City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, the New York City Council, and Mayor Bill de Blasio included a historic $44 MILLION IN NEW FUNDING FOR PARKS in the city budget!

$44 million investment in the FY20 budget for the City’s parks includes:

• $19.1 million for park maintenance workers, including 200 park workers, 100 gardeners, of which $9.6 million for 100 park workers and 50 gardeners is baselined
• $4 million for additional 50 Urban Park Rangers
• $6 million for additional 80 Parks Enforcement Patrol (PEP) officers
• $4 million for Forestry Management
• $8.2 million to support all 550 GreenThumb community gardens citywide
• $1.7 million to extend the City’s pool and beach season by an additional one week
• $1 million to support tree stump removal

This is a huge, historic win for NYC parks and the millions of people who depend on them. Thank you to the Speaker and Mayor, and MANY thanks to all the members of the Play Fair Coalition for all of your hard work getting us here. You made it happen!

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Play Fair is a multi-year advocacy campaign for parks leading up to the Mayoral election in 2021. In 2019, we kicked off the Play Fair campaign by focusing on a significant increase to the expense budget for the Parks Department, which would “baseline,” or secure, funding for much-needed maintenance, gardener and park worker positions in the City budget. Investing in greenspaces also improves air quality, makes our neighborhoods more resilient, and brings New Yorkers closer to nature.

New Yorkers for Parks partnered with the New York League of Conservation Voters, and DC 37, the Parks workers’ union, to form the Play Fair Coalition, which now includes over 140 organizations. The Play Fair campaign has the support of a supermajority of the City Council.

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In the first year, the Play Fair Coalition asked the Mayor and the City Council to direct much-needed maintenance and operations funding to the NYC Parks Department. Although City parks make up 14% of NYC’s land, last year the agency only received a meager 0.59% of the total City budget. For too long, parks and gardens have been overlooked as essential infrastructure for healthy neighborhoods.

Over 200 New Yorkers braved the winter weather to join the Play Fair Coalition on the steps of City Hall on February 28 to tell the City Council and Mayor to stop overlooking and under-funding our parks and green spaces! But that was just the beginning. We rallied again on May 14 to show City Hall that we won't stop until parks get the funding they need.

And it worked! On June 14 City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, the New York City Council, and Mayor Bill de Blasio included a historic $44 MILLION IN NEW FUNDING FOR PARKS in the city budget!

In 2019 the Play Fair Coalition asked for the following additions to the FY20 City budget:

Investing in Park Staffing and Maintenance Infrastructure:

• $10M means that once and for all, 100 City Park Workers and 50 Gardeners will have secure, stable green jobs.
• $4M provides an investment in natural forest care to help protect NYC from climate change.
• $65M would provide funding for more parks of all sizes to have full-time, dedicated staff to help keep things clean and green.
• About $8M would fund improvements for every GreenThumb community garden in the City.

Investments in Programming:

• $4M would fund more seasonal after-school programs and other programming for children and families.
• $9M means that natural areas and parks are better preserved, protected, and made safer.

While the full $100 million the Coalition asked for wasn't included in the fiscal year 2020 City budget, on June 14 City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, the New York City Council, and Mayor Bill de Blasio included a historic $44 MILLION IN NEW FUNDING FOR PARKS in the city budget! This was a direct result of the hard work and advocacy of the over 140 Play Fair Coalition members

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The Play Fair Coalition includes:

Abraham Lincoln Neighborhood Development Association
Alley Pond Environmental Center, Inc.
Alliance for Flushing Meadows Corona Park
Astoria Park Alliance 
Baisley Pond Park Block Association 
Bedford Mosholu Community Association 
Bronx Coalition for Parks & Green Spaces 
Bronx Council for Environmental Quality 
Bronx Park East Community Association
Bronx River Alliance
Bronx Roots in Motion
Brooklyn Greenway Initiative
Brooklyn Parks & Open Space Coalition
Brooklyn Queens Land Trust
BUFNY II/Harlem Tenants Association
Cadman Park Conservancy / Brooklyn War Memorial
Carl Schurz Park Conservancy
Carnegie Hill Neighbors
Central Park Conservancy
Chelsea Waterside Park Association
Citizen Gardeners
City Parks Foundation
Coastal Preservation Network
Cobble Hill Association
Common Ground Compost
Coney Island Beautification Project
Conference House Park Conservancy Inc.
Court Square Civic Association
DC 37 (founding member)
DC 37 Retirees Association
Design Trust for Public Space
Douglastown Local Development Corporation
Downtown Alliance
Downtown Brooklyn Partnership
Edgemere Coalition Community Garden
El Jardin del Paraiso
Elmhurst Supporters for Parks
El Puente
Flushing Meadows-Corona Park Conservancy
Fort Greene Park Conservancy
Fort Tryon Park Trust
Fresh Creek Nature Association
Friends of Abe Lebewohl Park
Friends of Alley Pond Park
Friends of Astoria Heights Park
Friends of Bellevue South Park 
Friends of Brookville Park
Friends of Bushwick Inlet Park 
Friends of Brower Park, Inc.
Friends of Carroll Park
Friends of Corlears Hook Park
Friends of Cunningham Park
Friends of Dag Hammarskjold Plaza
Friends of Ferry Point Park & Waterways
Friends of Forest Park
Friends of Inwood Hill Park
Friends of MacDonald Park 
Friends of Morningside Park
Friends of Mosholu Parkland 
Friends of Morningside Park 
Friends of Pelham Bay Park 
Friends of Pelham Parkway 
Friends of Raimonda Park
Friends of Straus Park
Friends of the High Line
Friends of Tompkins Square Dog Run
Friends of Transmitter Park 
Friends of Tremont Park
Friends of 4 Parks Alliance
GallopNYC
Girl Scouts of Greater New York
Girl Scout Troop 3205
Gowanus Canal Conservancy
Green Guerillas
Green Map System
Green Park Gardeners NYC
Guerinos Against Graffiti 
Health Essential Association
Hudson River Park Trust
Hunters Point Parks Conservancy
Inwood Hill Park Conservancy
Jackson Heights Beautification Group
Jamaica Bay - Rockaway Parks Conservancy
Kissena Corridor Park Conservancy, Inc.
Leilani S. Boykin Consulting
Long Island City Partnership
Lott Street Block Association
Love Our Pool
Loving the Bronx
Lower East Side Ecology Center
Madison Square Park Conservancy
Marcus Garvey Park Alliance
Maria Hernandez Park Dog Run Pack
Morton Street Block Association
Municipal Art Society
National Parks Conservation Association
Natural Areas Conservancy
New York City Audubon Society
New York City Community Garden Coalition
New York Junior Tennis & Learning
New York League of Conservation Voters (founding member)
New Yorkers for Parks (founding member)
New York Restoration Project
North American Climate, Conservation and Environment
North Brooklyn Parks Alliance
Parent Child Relationship Association
Prospect Park Alliance
Randall's Island Park Alliance
Red Hook Conservancy
Red Hook West Resident Association, Inc.
Riverside Park Conservancy
Row New York
Rude Grooms
Sara D. Roosevelt Park Coalition
Seward Park Conservancy
Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden
Staten Island Economic Development Corporation 
Stewards of Brust Park
Survivor I Am / Friends of Bufano Park
Sutton Place Parks Conservancy 
The Bronx is Blooming
The Brotherhood Sister Sol
The Connected Chef
The Freshkills Park Alliance
The Lowline
The Musical Seeds Project
The Nature Conservancy New York
The New York Landmarks Conservancy
The Old Stone House and Gardens
The Trust for Public Land 
Times Square Alliance
Union Square Partnership
United Athletic Association
UP-STAND
Van Cortlandt Park Alliance 
Volunteers for Springfield Park, Inc.
Warren Community Garden 
Waterfront Alliance
West 80s Neighborhood Association
Wetherby-Pembridge School
Wildlife Conservation Society
Yorkville Sports Association
10th & Stuyvesant Streets Block Association 
300 West Block Association
52 People for Progress

Thank you to Hydro Flask for their generous donation of reusable water bottles to our coalition as part of their Parks for All program.