Budget cuts a factor in brush fire flurry, parks workers and advocates say

DC 37's Garrido also blames understaffing

In August, a month after New York City’s budget for the 2025 fiscal year was finalized, parks workers and advocates warned that cuts to the Parks & Recreation Department’s budget would leave the city’s beloved natural areas and parks unmanaged, unpruned and unsafe. Two months later, amid a weeks-long drought, an unprecedented spate of brush fires tore through some of the city’s parks, turning formerly flourishing areas into ash.

Now leadership of District Council 37, Parks Department workers and open-space advocates fear that they’ve been proven right that increased funding for parks maintenance could have helped prevent some of the fires.