{"id":982943,"date":"2026-08-05T19:30:26","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T19:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/982943\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T19:30:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T19:30:26","slug":"queens-cm-hankerson-secures-unprecedented-29-1-million-in-funding-for-nyc-parks-workers-qns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/982943\/","title":{"rendered":"Queens CM Hankerson secures \u2018unprecedented\u2019 $29.1 million in funding for NYC Parks workers \u2013 QNS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Queens Council Member Ty Hankerson announced that he secured an \u201cunprecedented\u201d $29.1 million in baseline funding for parks workers in the City Council\u2019s FY27 Budget. As a result of the funding, the Parks Enforcement Patrol (PEP)<\/a> officers and other parks employees will continue to receive funding each budget season, protecting their positions long-term.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a major win for our Parkies, for our communities and for every New Yorker who depends on safe, clean, and cared-for parks,\u201d said Hankerson, chair of the Committee on Parks and Recreation<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The council member emphasized that for years, key parks positions and services have been funded one budget at a time, forcing workers and communities to wait each year to know whether critical jobs and programs would continue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFor years, we have had to fight just to keep these positions alive for another budget cycle,\u201d Hankerson continued. \u201cNow, they have the stable funding they should have had all along. This budget gives us a stronger foundation than we have had in past years, and I want to thank Mayor Mamdani and Speaker Menin for their outstanding commitment to our parks workers and the communities they serve. But our work is not done, and I am not letting up until we get to the 1 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hankerson noted that the funds protect the workers, programs and maintenance projects that keep the parks running, including Park Workers, Urban Park Rangers, recreation staff, tree planting positions, PEP officers, GreenThumb funding and tree stump removal funding.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those workers, he continued, maintain parks, support recreation centers, care for trees, help manage community gardens, keep public spaces safe and respond to the everyday needs of New Yorkers across the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He noted that the funding moves New York City closer to treating parks as core infrastructure \u2014 not an optional service funded through yearly budget battles.<\/p>\n

\"\"New York City Department of Parks and Recreation in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens. Photo by Renee DeLorenzo<\/p>\n

The council member said he aims to have 1% of the city\u2019s budget allocated to parks going forward. While that goal was not achieved in the city\u2019s FY27 budget, he explained that \u201csome parks positions depended on annual budget renewals, which created uncertainty for workers who wondered whether their jobs would continue from year to year.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the city\u2019s fiscal year \u2014 which began July 1 and will run through June 30, 2027 \u2014 city agencies and other governmental entities are authorized to spend the funds allocated to them under the adopted FY27 budget.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On June 30, the council team announced it voted to approve a $125.8 billion budget for the fiscal year. The funding package not only invests in parks, but also libraries, cultural institutions, affordability efforts, educational opportunities, housing stability and more.<\/p>\n

Hankerson, who represents the Queens neighborhoods of South Jamaica<\/a>, South Richmond Hill<\/a>, Rochdale Village<\/a> and South Ozone Park<\/a>, noted that he has been outspoken about his goal of increasing funding for green spaces across all five boroughs of New York City.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Queens Council Member Ty Hankerson announced that he secured an \u201cunprecedented\u201d $29.1 million in baseline funding for parks…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":982944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,394499,7510,1258,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,44244,378400,66171,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-982943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-council-member-ty-hankerson","tag-daily-newsletter","tag-funding","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-parks","tag-parks-enforcement-patrol","tag-pep","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117044565164502574","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=982943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/982944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=982943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=982943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=982943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}