The demand for more greenery is loud and clear.
In a bid to counter Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s proposed budget cuts, the City Council is advocating for an increase in resources for the Parks Department. Their aim is to allocate funds for an additional 200 officers dedicated to overseeing quality-of-life issues within New York City’s parks, sources have informed The Post.
This effort comes as a reaction to the mayor’s executive budget plan revealed earlier this month. The proposal includes reducing the current Parks Enforcement Patrol (PEP) force by one-third, significantly impacting the existing team of 350 officers.
“The current staffing level does not allow PEP officers to properly cover all of NYC parks and leaves significant gaps in coverage,” a council source disclosed to The Post.
Concerns are mounting about these potential gaps, and the council’s proposed funding seeks to address these deficiencies. They aim to inject around $40 million into the department’s forthcoming budget, with approximately half earmarked to significantly increase the number of PEP officers.
The council is seeking to add some $40 million to the department’s upcoming budget — with roughly half of the funding going toward effectively quadrupling the number of PEP officers.
Half of the roles the council is pushing to add would be “one-shot” positions that won’t have guaranteed funding in years to come, the source said.
Other improvements included in the council’s latest lump sum ask include hiring additional city parks workers and forestry management to tend to tree pruning, stump removal and sidewalk repairs.
The uniformed PEP officers, who function within the Parks Dept. instead of the NYPD, are tasked with issuing summonses for quality-of-life infractions such as dumping and vandalism across hundreds of parks and playgrounds around the city.
Nearly 600 quality-of-life concerns were redirected to PEP officers from 311 in 2025 — up 164.3% from 2023 and 793.6% from 2022 — ranging from dogs illegally off-leash, smoking, blocked entrances and unlicensed vending.
âEvery neighborhood park would be affected,â Adam Ganser, executive director of the New Yorkers for Parks advocacy group, fumed to The Post earlier this month over Mamdaniâs plan to slash PEP officers.
In a Wednesday statement, Ganser called the council pitch to beef up PEP enforcement a “significant commitment.
“While still not enough to adequately serve all 1,700 parks citywide, itâs a meaningful investment in these workers,” he said, “and [a] show of support for the critical role PEP officers play in keeping parks safe, welcoming, and accessible for all New Yorkers.â
Some parks with private stewardship funding — including Central Park — have gone so far as to hire private officers to tackle mounting issues in recent months.
The Central Park Conservancyâs Central Park Ranger Corps., which launched last spring, has already doubled in size and addressed roughly 30,000 calls — ranging from 17,000 off-leash dog reports to 2,000 vendor issues, a rep said.
But hundreds of other city parks without private funding would be disproportionately neglected under the current budget plan, critics argued.
The green space with the most total 311 calls last year was Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem, where both NYPD cops and PEP officers responded to 1,708 reports.
Trailing behind Marcus Garvey Park was Flushing Meadows Corona Park with 635 311 calls directed to PEP officers, followed by Prospect Park (309), Fort Tryon Park (291) and Washington Square Park (284).
Several Harlem residents previously told The Post the PEP officers stationed throughout the park manage everything from loud music to fighting.
âWe could really use more of those [officers], not less,â lifelong Harlem resident Joan told The Post earlier this month.
â[The] biggest problem around here is people killing each other,” the 79-year-old said, “and those Park officers actually help.â
