Lawmakers push for funding reform to clean up NYC’s most overlooked parks

Overflowing garbage cans and debris-filled pathways are familiar sights for visitors to Claremont Park in the Bronx — but the parks department has limited money to clean things up.

The 38-acre park sits atop a hill in one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods, and has to compete for $29 million allocated this year for the maintenance and operations of more than 300 parks in the borough. Joe Thomas, a staffer at the park, said he’s one of just three employees tasked with keeping the space clean — but argues at least 10 people are needed to do the job.

“It’s something that’s always talked about among my coworkers, we’re under the gun,” said Thomas, 55. “We can’t keep up with the amount of trash that’s being put out here.”

That budget squeeze isn’t an issue for parks in some of the city’s wealthiest neighborhoods, which have nonprofit arms that raise millions of dollars to keep them nice and tidy. The Central Park Conservancy, which runs the city’s most famous park, brings in more than $140 million every year through donors, events and concessions, according to tax filings. And filings show that the Madison Square Park Conservancy, which presides over a significantly smaller park, generated nearly $5 million in the same year.

Advocates say this discrepancy divides the city's parks into the haves and have-nots, and it's raising calls for funding reforms by lawmakers.