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Mayor Mamdani taps longtime public servant to lead NYC parks
By
Ryan Kost
Published Jan 17, 2026
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Ronaldo Silva/NurPhoto via Getty Images
By
Ryan Kost
Published Jan 17, 2026
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Mayor Zohran Mamdani, amid snow flurries drifting through High Bridge Park in the Bronx, on Saturday announced longtime public servant Tricia Shimamura as his pick to lead New York City’s vast parks system.
Mamdani framed the appointment as central to his broader effort to make the city more livable and affordable, calling parks one of the few truly accessible public spaces left in New York.
“These are not just places of rest and relaxation, of leisure and recreation,” Mamdani said. “They are centers of creativity, places of community where all of the people, so many people go hand in hand in the beating heart of our city.”
Mamdani called Shimamura an “ incredible New Yorker with a deep record of public service and a longstanding commitment to fighting for working people.”
In her remarks, Shimamura kept to Mamdani’s theme, calling parks “the agency of affordability.”
“ With over 30,000 acres of parkland, playgrounds and sports courts, we are the official backyard of New York City families, providing children safe places to play and learn,” she said.
The department's pools and beaches are where “New Yorkers learn to swim” at no cost, she added, and the community gardens and recreation centers are where they “connect with each other over a game of table tennis, a fitness class or pulling weeds in the garden.”
Shimamura most recently served as Manhattan borough commissioner for the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation, where she oversaw park operations across the borough.
Her resume also includes stints as a social worker and senior roles in city and federal government, including work for former Manhattan Borough President (now Comptroller) Mark Levine and then-Rep. Carolyn Maloney. She also spent years as the director of government relations at Columbia University, according to her LinkedIn.
Mamdani also paid respect to Iris Rodriguez-Rosa, the outgoing commissioner and first Latina to hold the role. He called her “a truly incredible New Yorker,” adding that her decades of service were “a testament of her love of New York and quantifiable evidence of a genuinely remarkable career.”
Parks funding stalled under the previous administration, but Mamdani has pledged to spend at least 1% of the city's budget on the sprawling system.
Ryan Kost
Ryan Kost is a reporter on the day-of news desk, where he covers breaking news and writes enterprise stories about jails, courts, prosecutors and government accountability. His work focuses on the public institutions that shape life in New York. Before joining the newsroom, he lead a multi-part investigation with Columbia Journalism Investigations and New York Focus into how New York prosecutors handle wrongful conviction claims. He's also been a staff writer at The San Francisco Chronicle, The Associated Press and The Oregonian. Got a tip? Signal: ryankost.20
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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