Editorial | NYC should restore Flushing Meadows Park in Queens to its former glory

Located in the heart of the World’s Borough, the park is home to numerous cultural and athletic hubs — the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, the Queens Museum, the Queens Zoo, the Queens Theater in the Park, the New York State Pavilion, and the Hall of Science. It is home to the past two Governors’ Balls, bringing tens of thousands of music lovers out for two days of great music. 

And yet, despite all the attractions and the millions of visitors that come through every year, Flushing Meadows Park has become a tarnished gem of sorts — a victim of years of underfunding for regular upkeep. 

The Playground for All Children, for instance, is rusting away and in need of repairs. Regular flooding has ravaged infrastructure in numerous areas. There are broken water fountains and shuttered amenities throughout the park. Even the Parks Department’s office near the Passerelle Pedestrian Bridge has a beat-up awning with missing letters.

But nothing is more emblematic of Flushing Meadows’ current state of neglect than the Unisphere, the grand steel globe that was the centerpiece of the 1964-65 World’s Fair. It has not only lost its silvery sheen, but also its grandeur. The spectacular water fountains that came to life under the Unisphere for decades have not operated in more than three years, thanks to flood-damaged electrical infrastructure.

The Unisphere is steps away from the National Tennis Center, home to the prestigious US Open every summer, which brings more than 1 million visitors to the park. What message does it send to tourists and New Yorkers alike when the Unisphere, Queens’ main symbol, isn’t fully operational in the heart of a deteriorating park? 

The Unisphere was also the backdrop of Zohran Mamdani’s first press conference after his election as mayor last year. As a Queens resident and champion of the city on a global stage, he ought to feel a sense of responsibility for making sure the Unisphere and Flushing Meadows are made to be their best. 

A park that’s 50 acres larger in total area than Central Park, that attracts millions of visitors every year, that has the eyes of the world upon it for two weeks every summer during the U.S. Open, that so many New Yorkers rely upon for everyday recreation, deserve better. 

They deserve a Flushing Meadows Park in which tens of millions of dollars are invested over the next few years to fix the broken fountains of the Unisphere, repair the Playground for All Children, restore the dirt-covered lawns, and make the infrastructure more resilient to flooding.

We call on Mayor Mamdani and the Parks Department to deliver city funds to restore Flushing Meadows Park to its former glory — and to use his influence as the city’s elected leader to urge business, cultural and philanthropic leaders to bring the Unisphere back to full operation.

Queens and the city deserve a Flushing Meadows Park restored to its former glory, and a place that residents, tourists and New Yorkers alike can once again be proud to visit.