Parks in affluent neighborhoods are receiving enhanced maintenance partially as a result of neighborhood largess and partially because private funds need to be matched by public funds. Parks in disadvantaged neighborhoods are sometimes abandoned by a caring, but woefully underfunded, Parks Department which must put their limited funding where the matching funds are. The people those parks are intended to serve sometimes avoid their neighborhood oases as they give the appearance of being controlled by vandals. In spite of good times, parks funding and Parks Department personnel are near the lowest level in the history of the consolidated City of New York. Skilled maintenance people are an endangered species.
Programming is virtually extinct.
The Coalition continues to battle the prevailing belief that parks are an expendable luxury. We are attempting to confront the crisis of parks underfunding by educating New Yorkers about the problem, and working with other organizations to find potential solutions in the form of adequate government support for our greenspace system. We work to find new sources of funding for parks. Partially as a result of NOSC's outreach efforts, the federal transportation program has provided the largest US government contribution to NYC parks since WW2. We hope that additional new sources of funding are found at every level of government.