BPOC and “Play Fair” Call on the City to Protect Park Jobs

NYC Parks Has Already Sustained Drastic Cuts; Further Losses Would Hurt Low-Income, Communities of Color and those Most Affected by COVID-19

August 28, 2020

Today New Yorkers for Parks, Chair of the Council Committee on Parks and Recreation Peter Koo, District Council 37, Brooklyn Parks and Open Spaces Coalition (BPOC) and the other 299 members of Play Fair Coalition issued the following statement in response to the potential layoff of up to 22,000 city employees on October 1, due to be announced by Mayor de Blasio on August 31 in an attempt to balance the city budget:

“In a time when parks and open space play an even more essential role in the health and safety of our city, we urge Mayor de Blasio to not make any cuts to NYC Parks staff. NYC Parks already sustained a drastic budget cut of 14% in June, the second highest of any city agency, resulting in the loss of more than 1,700 parks staff. 

“As parks are one of the few safe outlets for New Yorkers grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic, park use has increased across the city. Our open spaces are already showing the effects of reduced resources coupled with increased use. We are hearing reports from across the city of overflowing trash cans, overgrowth, fallen tree limbs and other poor conditions in open spaces citywide. Tropical storms and other extreme weather conditions threaten to further exacerbate these problems. Open spaces are an integral part of NYC’s climate resilience and allowing these spaces to fall into disrepair can further jeopardize the environmental health of our city.

“Not all communities have the resources to sustain conservancies that can attempt to fill the funding gap, and volunteers alone cannot and should not be expected to replace park workers. It is those parks that rely solely on public funding, often located in low-income and communities of color, many of which were hardest-hit by COVID-19, that will suffer the most.

“NYC Parks workers served New York City as essential workers from the beginning of the pandemic, and they remain as important as ever today. The City must protect the jobs of every single one of these essential employees.”