Mayor Mamdani pledged to allocate 1% of the city budget to NYC Parks maintenance and operations, a critical first step toward safe, clean, and accessible parks. Free to the public, our parks and open spaces must be central to New York City’s affordability agenda.

This “First 100 Days for Parks” agenda outlines high-impact opportunities for the new administration to reverse decades of disinvestment. Drawn from New Yorkers for Parks and the Play Fair Coalition’s “Parks 2030” platform, it calls for early, visible improvements that will immediately enhance quality of life across all five boroughs.

Announce publicly how this administration will reach 1% for Parks with specific budget milestones for each of the 4 years of the mayor’s term, starting with parks investment in January’s Preliminary Budget for FY27.

A three-year hiring freeze has made it impossible for NYC Parks to fill vacant positions. Mayor Adams eliminated 600+ critical staffing lines including Forestry, maintenance, Parks Enforcement Patrol, trade workers, engineers, project managers and more. Restore agency headcount so parks can thrive.

Issue a public plan and rapid audit and repair schedule to get our parks system in shape. Fix benches, drinking fountains, lights, spray showers and playground equipment in the highest-need parks in every borough.

Issue a public plan and rapid audit and repair schedule to ensure every park bathroom is functional, clean, open, and accessible. And invest in additional Second Shift staff to service 400 high-use locations and extend summer open hours to 9 pm.

Announce a plan to address the NYC Parks backlog of over 20,000 uninspected tree conditions and over 35,000 unaddressed work orders. This issue is directly due to insufficient staffing. Trees are critical for public health and climate mitigation. More acutely, unaddressed tree issues endanger New Yorkers and are a liability for the city."

Hire lawn crews for each borough and green up our parks! NYC Parks lacks dedicated staff to care for the city’s 3,000+ acres of park lawns and playing fields. As a result, the agency on average meets just 50% of its commitments to maintain park lawns.

Adopt the NYC Urban Forest Plan, commit to expanding the city's tree canopy from 23% to 30% as required by Local Law 148 of 2023, and ensure resources are available to execute the plan.

Direct the new Parks Commissioner to develop NYC’s first citywide Parks Master Plan by January 2027, a long-term vision for an equitable and resilient parks system. While NYC Parks has produced many individual plans based on issues or location, it has never adopted a holistic, systemwide framework for what it aims to achieve.

Push the City Law Department to resolve longstanding nonprofit parks and open space partner issues including licensing agreements, insurance, indemnification and permitting. Expand Partnerships for Parks to better serve neighborhood-based grassroots volunteer groups.

Signal a new era of parks for the city and for Queens by investing in the QueensWay proposal, a vision to turn a long-neglected rail corridor into a family-friendly linear park and cultural greenway offering recreational opportunities and public amenities for the surrounding communities.