Farewell from parks commish

To the editor:

As I close out my tenure as parks commissioner, I can’t help but reflect on my initial goals to create a culture of care, and to connect and improve green spaces in communities across the city.

Thinking back, I’m reminded of Cole Rosengren’s musings in the Gotham Gazette in October 2015 — “The Silver Parks Doctrine” — over my plans and how “care” differs from “maintenance.” After seven years as commissioner, I am proud that I forged on.

During this administration — and under my watch — care has manifested itself in many ways. At its most rudimentary, care has simply meant letting staff members know how invaluable they are. But, care goes far beyond, and includes ensuring staff members have the tools they need to do their jobs — from maintenance to senior staff members.

Care extends to our engagement with the public for their input in park development, identifying new ways to engage with our local partners and stewards, and emphasizing that parks are extensions and reflections of the communities they serve.

Because we have cared, we have brought our park system into the 21st century, with guidelines focused on resiliency and access, and by leading with a data-driven approach to increasing park equity. We have invested nearly $2 billion to complete more than 850 capital projects across the city, including Mayor Bill de Blasio’s community parks initiative, which reconstructed parks in communities with the greatest need for open-space improvements that had not seen investment in decades.

We also successfully launched Parks Without Borders, focused on improving areas where parks and neighborhoods meet. And our anchor parks initiative, which brought major improvements to five large parks with historical under-investment, and so much more.

Care is bigger than just one task or initiative. We have been building an ecosystem of support, doing this by creating relationships with the people of New York. Partners, conservancies and volunteers across the city help us care for the green spaces we know and love.

From our larger conservancies to small friends groups who work with Partnerships for Parks, to community gardens, to stewardship development of our youth — like our successful Junior Litter League as part of our anti-trash campaign — we have advocates who lend their voices, time and support. All advancing the city’s mission to build a more equitable park system for present and future generations.

Our parks have always been our front yards in this thriving metropolis — proven even more so during the COVID-19 pandemic — but now they are also our gyms, our living rooms, our offices, and so much more. It ties back to something I was quoted in the 2015 article, as I referenced the “spiritual, physical, social and economic benefits” of our parks, and how they serve as a “living room” for many people.

I’d like to think our understanding of parks’ role helped make our transition into being an oasis during the pandemic more natural and seamless.

During playground ribbon cuttings, I’d ask the children to take a pledge of care for their new park. In unison, they would take a vow to protect, preserve, accept ownership of, and care for this revitalized space.

As I leave office and we strive toward recovery, I call on all New Yorkers, “parkies,” commissioners and administrations to come to pledge to do the same: To build on the foundation laid in the past seven years. To prioritize community and equity across the city’s parks system.

I’ve created a new pledge, so please repeat after me: “I promise to love and care for our park system, all that serve in it and all that utilize it for their health and well-being. I promise to foster its diversity, equity and access, and invest in its future. This park system belongs to all of us.”

Mitchell Silver

The author is the former city parks commissioner.

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