Parks and playgrounds, the inner-city kids Disneyland and Splish Splash. For those who did not have the luxury of having a backyard, playgrounds where the epicenter of fun on hot summer days. According to the New York City Parks Department, “New York City has more than 1700 parks playgrounds and recreation facilities across the five boroughs” New York City is unique in the way it is spatially structured. Many of the parks that are in the neighborhood are typically within walking distance. However, one of the biggest concerns in parks in low-income neighborhoods is safety. A study released on by the National Institute of Health showed that a way to combat “safety threats” is to focus on community engagement.
Another important issue with these parks is how they are maintained. Mayor Bill De Blasio began the Community Parks Initiative in 2014 and since then has repaired over 110 of them. This initiative serves underrepresented communities and is a great start in an effort to tackle this park problem, but is it enough? In my district, there is a participatory budget where members of the community can vote where almost one million dollars of our district budget can be directed towards. Some options include new technology in school or installing adult fitness centers in three parks around the district. However, it is up to the community to decide. (if you live in district 19, make sure to vote between April 9th – 13th, website below)*.
Community engagement isn’t the only way to tackle this problem. Many leaders in the past (looking at you Bloomberg) have sought out the privatization of park space to ease up on the responsibilities of the city. The most famous example being The High Line. Despite the fact that the city owns the space, the maintenance of the park is overseen by a non-profit called Friends of the High Line. In my neighborhood, there is a park at a local school P.S. 184 that is full of people of all ages every hot summer day. One of the most popular attractions is the regulation sized handball courts. Although this space has been neglected by the city, it is common knowledge that the people who use the park have doubled as the maintained crew. On their own accord, the former handball players repainted the entire handball court several times. Now the handball godfathers of the park have since retired and the paint is now slowly chipping away. I think the best aspect of this park is the sense of community that surrounds it. Now can these practices of privatization or communal upkeep be our saving grace? Or is it just another prime example of governmental incompetence?
*Also if you live within in the 5 boroughs, check out this website to see whats on your district’s budget and where to vote!
https://council.nyc.gov/paul-vallone/pb/7 – District 19’s budget vote
Works Cited
https://www.nrpa.org/contentassets/f768428a39aa4035ae55b2aaff372617/urban-parks.pdf
https://www.nycgovparks.org/about/faq
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4821183/
