Introducing the Stewards of McCarren Park

It started with a simple thing: listening.

Listening to local business owners, to morning joggers, to remote workers and to the netizens of Reddit. Each person voiced a different concern:

“The trash bins across the park are overflowing”

“The softball fields are patchy and dry”

“The soccer fields are a mess after big games”

We heard a symphony of solicitudes with every concern pointing us towards the same core issue: McCarren Park needed help.

First, we did our research. Why did it need help?

Well, unlike Central Park or Battery Park or Prospect Park, McCarren Park did not have a dedicated community alliance or volunteer group! It relied solely on the allotted city budget. The parks budget for FY25 across was 0.59%, or $688 million. That $688 million was divided across New York City’s 1700 parks. At a maximum, that is $400k every year towards McCarren Park operations for our recreation centers, sanitation, landscaping, and parks enforcement. In a park with over a million yearly visitors and 36 acres to care for, the city’s budget only goes so far.

For those interested, you can dive deeper on how New York funds its parks here.

So we decided to step up.

Over the past four months, we’ve hosted over 50 individual volunteers who have collectively cleaned up over 300 lbs of trash (even the small stuff: bottlecaps, cigarette butts and all!) and raked up over 1000 gallons of year-old leaf debris. Despite our efforts, the trash continued to pile up and the park workers swept it daily like Sisyphus pushed his boulder.

We realized quickly that our work needed to go beyond a weekly clean up.

So, between each clean, we worked closely with the McCarren Park staff to form a list of improvements that could help make the park safer and cleaner. These improvements ranged from larger capital projects for park infrastructure to smaller incremental changes that impact everyday work.

What’s first on the agenda?

1. Purchase new trash cans for the North Fields (Field 1 and P.O. Gilroy Field) and the skatepark.

The current trash bins lining the walkways present two issues. One, they are not large enough for the daily volume of parkgoers’ trash. Two, they are not properly rat proofed. Anyone walking in McCarren Park today can see that the knees of every trash and recycling bin are chewed through. 60 trash cans total are required to replace the current fleet of decaying bins.

2. Secure funding for new lawn care equipment.

The large park lawns can quickly become overgrown especially going into the summer season. Unfortunately, McCarren Park staff does not have their own mowers and weedwhackers, they currently use district tools. They do not have the means to cut lawns on a regular basis. Our first funds will go towards two of each of these to store on premises.

We are starting small. We are new and we intend to first establish consistency and trust within the community. Over time, we hope to take on larger projects, including but not limited to:

• New flower beds with native plants
• Reseeding the north fields
• Catch basin improvements for flood mitigation
• Easing soil compaction
• Rodent mitigation

The formalization of the Stewards of McCarren Park marks our long-term commitment to the cleanliness and safety of the park.

We’re not just here to take care of the park, either. We’re here to take care of you. If you have any questions, concerns, or ideas for park improvement please do not hesitate to reach out to us.

We can’t wait to listen.