NEW YORK, NY — New York City officials announced $50 million in new capital funding to rebuild 10 neighborhood parks across the five boroughs, expanding a program focused on parks in historically underserved communities.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New York City Parks Commissioner Tricia Shimamura said the projects will move forward through the Community Parks Initiative, a city program that targets parks that have gone decades without major upgrades.
The investment will reach parks in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island and affect neighborhoods where more than 100,000 residents live.
“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. “These New Yorkers know the difference between a park in disarray and a park that city government has invested in.”
The program rebuilds parks through a community design process that adds new play equipment, recreation space and landscaping while improving accessibility.
City officials said the parks department has completed 70 projects through the initiative since it launched in 2014 and currently has 47 more underway. The combined projects represent more than $500 million in capital investment in parks that had not seen major upgrades for decades.
The new projects will bring the number of active Community Parks Initiative sites to 57.
Researchers at the City University of New York Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy said recent studies show the renovations have increased park use and improved residents’ well-being.
According to findings from the Physical Activity and Redesigned Community Spaces study, residents in neighborhoods with renovated parks reported spending more time in parks, higher satisfaction with park quality and lower stress levels among frequent park users.
The 10 parks scheduled for upgrades include:
Bronx
Mott PlaygroundFountain of Youth PlaygroundMorris Mesa Playground
Brooklyn
Van Dyke PlaygroundRoebling PlaygroundElizabeth Stroud Playground
Manhattan
Vladeck ParkSt. Nicholas Park 133rd Street Playground
Queens
Staten Island
The initiative directs funding to parks in neighborhoods with high poverty levels, population density and growth where facilities have gone at least two decades without major capital improvements.
One recent project, Jennie Jerome Playground in the Bronx, reopened in 2025 with new inclusive play equipment, a spray shower, picnic seating and additional trees designed to reduce heat and noise from a nearby expressway.