EQUITY, INVESTMENT, AND EXPANSION: NYC PARKS CELEBRATES 2025 WINS AND REFLECTS ON FOUR YEARS OF IMPROVEMENTS TO PUBLIC GREENSPACES

The Adams administration's Parks legacy includes major lifeguard program improvements and critical investments in resiliency and equity

NYC Parks Commissioner Iris Rodriguez-Rosa today joined Mayor Eric Adams to celebrate the major investments in New York City's public spaces in 2025 and throughout the term. From transforming a former landfill into a new signature park on Staten Island, to setting new benchmarks in lifeguard recruitment and retention, Parks' accomplishments since 2022 have made the city's public greenspaces more welcoming, livable, safe, and resilient.

In the past year, Parks completed a number of initiatives throughout the city that helped New Yorkers access their shared public spaces and enjoy all the benefits of time outdoors. Parks completed a $23 million investment in public space at New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) developments, revitalizing nearly three acres of open space across six NYCHA locations in Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx, bringing new playgrounds, sports equipment, and seating areas to NYCHA residents. Parks has also expanded our free swim programs, reaching an additional 4,800 second graders to bring the total to nearly 18,000 youth served by our free programs. Additionally, Parks promoted equity in athletic spaces by rolling out new athletic permit rules and fee changes to improve access for non-profit and youth organizations. Also in 2025, Parks celebrated the historic expansion of the Second Shift program, dedicating extra maintenance services for 100 additional hot spots at parks across the five boroughs during peak evening and weekend hours. This expanded the total sites citywide serviced by dedicated staff to 200 hot spots.

"We took office with a simple promise: to 'Get Stuff Done,' and, four years later, our administration can say that we delivered on that promise every day for working-class New Yorkers," said New York City Mayor Eric Adams. "We drove shootings to record lows and pushed jobs and small businesses to record highs. We rewrote the playbook on homelessness and mental health to finally get New Yorkers living on our streets the help they need, and, after decades of half-measures, passed historic housing legislation to turn New York into a 'City of Yes.' We overhauled the way our students learn to read and do math, cut the cost of child care, and forgave medical debt. We eliminated taxes for low-income families, launched free universal after-school programming, and put more people within walking distance of a park, and expanded our free swim programs. We got scaffolding off our buildings, trash bags off our streets, and opened up new public spaces for New Yorkers to enjoy. The haters may have doubted us, but the results are clear. On issue after issue, we brought common-sense leadership to create a safer, more affordable city, and our work has changed our city for the better; it will stand the test of time because we made New York City the best place to live and raise a family."

"Our citywide parks system is critical living infrastructure, and our work in 2025 and throughout the Adams administration has helped more New Yorkers than ever access safe, welcoming, and clean public spaces where they can enjoy all the physical and mental health benefits of time outdoors," said NYC Parks Commissioner Iris Rodriguez-Rosa. "Between the creation of a brand-new signature park in Staten Island, our major investments in recreation centers and swim safety, and our historic improvements to our lifeguard system, I'm proud of the work we've done since 2022 for our vital parks system to make our city safer, more livable, and more resilient. I'm grateful to Mayor Adams and our partners across the administration for understanding the importance of our public greenspaces, and to the thousands of hardworking Parks staff throughout the five boroughs who make our parks the best in the world."

Parks' investment in New York City's network of public greenspaces has been guided by the Vital Parks for All initiative. This ambitious framework for investing in public parks as vital living infrastructure directs over $3.2 billion in completed and planned projects across ten strategic initiatives, furthering Parks' mission to grow, maintain and program a world-class park system prioritizing equity, access, safety and nature.

Clean and safe: The City's investments in public safety and cleanliness have made New York City's public spaces more secure and more welcoming for all New Yorkers. To expand public access to restrooms, Mayor Adams and Parks announced the Ur in Luck initiative in 2024, a plan to build 46 new restrooms and renovate 36 existing restrooms in five years. Parks has already completed 14 Ur in Luck projects since the initiative's launch. Parks also cracked down on illegal dumping in our shared spaces, increasing fines from $1,000 to $5,000 with an additional $10,000 fine for repeat offenders. During the summer months, the millions of visitors to the city's beaches and pools every year were kept safe thanks to a revitalized lifeguard corps, which in 2025 had grown from a low of 850 in 2023 to 1,080 lifeguards. The 27% increase in lifeguard staffing follows an aggressive recruitment campaign and expansion of training opportunities. Additionally, the Adams administration negotiated the city's agreement with the union representing City lifeguards in 2024 for the first time in 40 years, paving the way for improved recruitment and lifeguard operations. To further improve safety at the city's greenspaces in all seasons, Parks added 100 new Parks Enforcement Patrol positions in 2025 to bolster patrol strength throughout the city.

Green and resilient spaces: Throughout the Adams administration, Parks has invested in the stewardship and resiliency of New York City's public spaces, from the coastline's waters to trees lining city streets. Since taking office, the Adams administration has committed a total of $80 million to expand New Yorkers' access to the citywide network of greenspaces. Since 2022, Parks has added over 86 acres of parkland to bring an additional 37,000 New Yorkers to within a 10-minute walk of a local park. Parks has also made the waterfront safer for boaters and for wildlife, removing over 420 derelict vessels from the city's shoreline thanks to New York's first-ever Office of Marine Debris Disposal and Vessel Surrendering. Parks has also invested in long-term resiliency with the major East Side Coastal Resiliency project, which is building a continuous line of protection on Manhattan's east side against coastal storms and sea level rise. In October 2024, the Adams administration celebrated the completion of the project's first half, ahead of schedule and $10 million under budget.

Parks has also worked to expand New Yorkers' access to high quality greenspaces by opening new parks, like the massive 21-acre North Park section of Freshkills Park on Staten Island - formerly the site of the world's largest landfill. Parks is making critical investments in Hart Island that will help New Yorkers respectfully connect with the historic public cemetery, unveiling a concept plan in 2025 that outlines a 20-plus year vision for the island's memorial and natural spaces. Also in the Bronx, the 2024 acquisition of the critical CSX property has advanced the rerouting of Tibbetts Brook aboveground, which will improve the health of the Harlem River and create new parkland for New Yorkers to enjoy. Across the five boroughs, Parks has also made major strides expanding the city's urban tree canopy, and recent improvements to the tree planting program have set a record pace of planting 18,000 trees per year.

Additionally, the Adams administration committed more than $1 billion toward a major reconstruction of the Coney Island shoreline, including a reconstruction of the historic Riegelmann Boardwalk, new housing, and public realm improvements such as a $42 million renovation of NYC Parks' Abe Stark Sports Center.

Investing in equity, access, and volunteerism: Since the beginning of the administration, Parks has registered 367 construction contracts to Minority-and-Women-Owned Business Enterprises (M/WBEs), representing 52% of Parks' total registered contracts. Parks also earned an A on its final M/WBE Report Card published in February 2025. Beyond contracts, Parks worked to expand opportunities for all New Yorkers to get involved in local spaces as volunteers. Thanks to the Let's Green NYC initiative, Parks engaged a record number of volunteers in the stewardship of their local greenspaces, reaching over 1.4 million volunteers since 2023. As part of this initiative, Parks launched the first-ever volunteer directory on our website, connecting New Yorkers to both large and grassroots volunteer organizations. Parks also developed the Vital Parks Explorer, a digital map that empowers New Yorkers with data on access to critical components of a vital park system, allowing them to compare their community's access to park amenities with other neighborhoods in the city.

Parks has also been committed to ensuring equitable access to greenways in the outer boroughs with initiatives like the historic greenway expansion, announced by Mayor Adams in 2023. This investment will fill gaps in the outer-borough greenway network, building more than 40 miles of new protected bike infrastructure and improving existing infrastructure along the corridors to expand safer, greener transportation options to Queens, Staten Island, Brooklyn, and the Bronx. These new amenities will complement the 2.1 new greenway miles and 10 reconstructed greenway miles that Parks has built over the course of the administration, giving New Yorkers across the city safe places to bike, jog, and stroll.

Expanding recreation access: One of the hallmarks of the Adams administration has been an investment in New Yorkers' recreational spaces, from building new recreation centers to initiating major improvements to beloved existing spaces. Parks has secured more than $700 million in funds to build or substantially reconstruct six recreation centers, including the $141 million Shirley Chisholm Recreation Center at Nostrand Playground in East Flatbush, Brooklyn and the $92 million Mary Cali Dalton Recreation Center in Tompkinsville, Staten Island, the first new Parks recreation centers in nearly a decade. Mayor Adams and the City Council have also invested $160 million to fully rebuild the 70-year-old Brownsville Recreation Center, providing a brand-new, state-of-the art recreation facility in the heart of Brooklyn. Additionally, Roy Wilkins Park in St. Albans, Queens, will be receiving an additional $55 million in funding for the creation of a new indoor pool as well as repairs to the existing indoor pool, on top of the $92 million previously announced for a brand-new recreation center in the park. Across the city, Parks has been committed to expanding swim access for all New Yorkers. In 2024, Mayor Adams and NYC Parks launched Let's Swim NYC, a more than $1 billion capital investment in building, improving, and protecting New York City's public pools. New and reconstructed pools like Astoria Pool, which reopened in 2024, and the new Gottesman Pool in Central Park, which opened in 2025, have already helped more New Yorkers stay cool in the hot summer months while providing safe spaces to learn critical water safety skills. Parks has also received over $64 million in local and state funding to construct the Arverne East aquatics center, which will bring the first Parks public pool to the Rockaway peninsula in Queens.

Constantly improving New York's public spaces: Since the beginning of 2022, Parks has designed and built hundreds of new and upgraded public greenspaces across the five boroughs, breaking ground at 589 sites and completing construction at nearly 500 sites since 2022. Parks also registered a record number of concession agreements, completing 300 contracts for a total value of $160 million with business that enhance shared public spaces and provide critical revenue for the city. In addition, Parks successfully negotiated over $350 million of open space investments as part of neighborhood planning efforts across five rezoning areas: Atlantic Avenue Mixed Use Plan (Brooklyn), Midtown South Mixed-use Rezoning (Manhattan), Jamaica Rezoning (Queens), OneLIC (Queens) and Metro North Rezoning (Bronx). These significant investments in existing parks and expansion of parkland help to address the impacts of increased neighborhood density.