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These 10 NYC parks in underserved areas will get $50M in upgrades, Mamdani says
By
Ryan Kost
Published Mar 6, 2026
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Yuriy T via Getty Images
By
Ryan Kost
Published Mar 6, 2026
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Mayor Zohran Mamdani is pledging $50 million to reconstruct 10 parks across New York City, targeting spaces his office says haven’t seen “significant capital improvements” in at least two decades.
The funding, which Mamdani announced alongside city Parks Commissioner Tricia Shimamura this week, will go to parks in Brownsville, Harlem, the Lower East Side, Corona and other historically underserved areas in each of the five boroughs.
The renovations will benefit more than 100,000 New Yorkers, city officials said.
“For many New Yorkers, the park is their backyard — a place where they can play a game of pick-up basketball, hold a picnic on the grass or kick a ball with their kids,” Mamdani said in a statement. “These New Yorkers know the difference between a park in disarray and a park that city government has invested in.”
The 10 parks will get upgrades including new play equipment, recreation amenities and enhanced green space as part of the city’s Community Parks Initiative, which launched in 2014. The program has already completed 70 projects and has 47 others underway, according to the Mamdani administration.
The announcement comes as the mayor faces criticism from parks advocates over his proposed parks budget. Mamdani had promised while campaigning that he would dedicate 1% of the city’s overall budget to the parks department if elected. Instead, his preliminary spending plan cuts $33.7 million from the department, bringing total proposed parks spending to around $654 million — roughly 0.5% of the city's $127 billion budget.
Dora Pekec, a spokesperson for Mamdani, told Gothamist last month he was still committed to achieving the 1% goal “by the end of his mayoralty.”
Here is the full list of parks receiving new investments from the Community Parks Initiative:
Bronx
Mott Playground (Concourse)
Fountain of Youth Playground (Mott Haven / Longwood)
Morris Mesa Playground (Mount Hope)
Brooklyn
Van Dyke Playground (Brownsville)
Roebling Playground (South Williamsburg)
Elizabeth Stroud Playground (Bedford–Stuyvesant)
Manhattan
Vladeck Park (Lower East Side)
St. Nicholas Park 133rd St. Playground (Harlem)
Queens
Corona Health Sanctuary (Corona)
Staten Island
Kaltenmeier Playground (Rosebank / Shore Acres)
Tagged
Politics
Zohran Mamdani
new york city
parks
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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