Parks in New York mired in trash: citizens are urged to go to the cleaning

On the last warm days, New Yorkers try to spend as much time as possible outdoors. However, city parks, squares and lawns, mired in garbage and overgrown with tall grass, today resemble a dump. Due to the crisis, there are not enough funds for cleaning, so residents of the metropolis are encouraged to join subbotniks. The newspaper writes about it The New York Times.

The quarantine, introduced in New York due to the coronavirus pandemic, has been going on for more than five months. Just when the townspeople so need sites for safe and comfortable recreation, parks and squares are mired in garbage.

This is because the Parks Department today has far fewer resources to keep green spaces in New York City clean. The reason for this is budget cuts while increasing the number of park visitors. Even in normal times, the increase in visitors would make it harder to keep the green space clean. But the financial crisis fueled by the coronavirus pandemic has resulted in a $ 84 million cut in funding for the Parks Department this fiscal year. That's one seventh of the department's total budget.

As a result, the staff of the department was reduced by almost half. Maintenance hours have also decreased by 25 hours per week. Now 400 fewer sites are visited per week than before.

And in early August, the city's mayor Bill de Blasio announced that this fall the department is likely to be even more layoffs.

On the subject: The environmental impact of the pandemic: why New York is mired in trash

Some are genuinely concerned about the state of urban green spaces. “Parks occupy 14% of the entire city territory. So if they look ugly, then New York looks ugly. He risks returning to the state he was in in the 1970s and 1980s, ”said Adam Ganser, executive director of the non-profit New Yorkers for Parks. - If about them (about parks. - Ed.) are badly taken care of, it seems that the city does not care about its citizens. "

However, there is some good news. According to the Police Department, between April and June the number of violent crimes in city parks fell by about 50%.

So now the problem is only in the debris that has filled the green recreation areas.
To remedy this, the Parks Department launched an information campaign urging people to clean up after themselves. Trash bags will be distributed to those wishing to join the Saturday clean-ups.

City officials and activists have shown by personal example how you can clean the parks from garbage with your own hands. In the Bronx, Ruben Diaz Jr., the district chief, and dozens of volunteers clean up the trash at Soundview Park on Mondays. According to him, the city is ruined, and the only hope is its inhabitants.