Mayor Zohran Mamdani: Good morning, everyone. I want to say thank you to everyone for being here today, and thank you also to Council Member Althea Stevens, as well as Assemblymember Landon Dais. In a city where almost everything costs something, our parks are not only a sanctuary from the hustle and bustle, they are also the rare corner of our city that are truly accessible and affordable to each and every person who calls the city home.
As Frederick Law Olmsted once said, “Parks are the only places where vast numbers of persons are brought closely together, poor and rich, young and old, each individual adding [by his] mere presence to the presence of others.” These are not just places of rest and relaxation, of leisure and recreation. They are centers of creativity, places of community where all of the people, so many people, go hand in hand in the beating heart of our city where New Yorkers make art, where they make music, where they make time for the people in their lives and those that they love.
After all, as the great MC Shan once rhymed, “Hip-hop was set out in the dark, they used to do it out in the park.” And yet we know that for too long, our parks have been neglected and underfunded, the first victims of cuts, the public infrastructure most eagerly sacrificed. And as our City Hall works to build a city in partnership with elected officials at the city and the state levels, like the ones we have here today, a city where dignified life is available to each and every New Yorker, we will pursue that purpose by supporting the places where everyday people go to find that rarest of things in our city, peace of mind.
To lead this work, I am proud today to appoint Tricia Shimamura as New York's new Parks commissioner. She is an incredible New Yorker with a deep record of public service and a long-standing commitment to fighting for working people. Tricia has served New Yorkers from nearly every level of government. She has worked as a social worker. She has worked for Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney as a deputy chief of staff.
She has worked for a director of community affairs for then Manhattan borough president, now Comptroller Mark Levine. And most recently, she has worked as the Manhattan borough commissioner at the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. In that role, she oversaw all aspects of park services across that borough, developing a deep expertise in everything, from budgeting to horticulture.
But frankly, as interesting if not far more than Tricia's resume, is her reason for seeking to lead. She's the granddaughter of Japanese Americans who themselves were interned during the Second World War. The granddaughter of Puerto Rican grandparents who worked to make ends meet at a t-shirt factory in Brooklyn, cutting loose strings off shirts.
She grew up thinking that [the] government was not something meant for people who necessarily looked like her or came from families like hers. And yet as a social worker, she reckoned with systems that often seem too broken and too large for any one person to be able to fix. She started to see governing as not only a way to deliver change, but also a way to deliver belonging in a city that so many call home.
And where better to continue that work than in our parks, where every single New Yorker belongs. Tricia knows that stewarding our parks means more than cutting the grass and tending to the trees. It is a daily endeavor where parks leaders must work with local stakeholders to ensure that their needs are heard, to expand access to more New Yorkers, and to make these public resources truly belong to the public.
In that work, Tricia will be following in truly great footsteps. I want to recognize and express my gratitude to former Commissioner Iris Rodriguez-Rosa, the first Latina to ever hold the role in a truly incredible New York. Her 47 years of service to our city are a testament of her love of New York and quantifiable evidence of a genuinely remarkable career. I thank her and I wish her only the best in her next chapter of her time.
At my inaugural address, I quoted the great Jadakiss, J to the Muah, as guidance for how my administration intends to govern outside, alongside the people of this city. And we know that when so many New Yorkers are outside, they are outside in our parks. Whether it's here at the gorgeous Highbridge Park, running the loop at Astoria Park, hiking in Pelham Bay Park, seeing the cherry blossoms at [the] Conference House in Staten Island, watching the sunset from Sunset Park, or playing cricket like I did in Ferry Point Park.
These parks are more than simple green spaces in a city that is typically full of concrete. They are what makes our home feel like home. They are what add order to lives of chaos. They are where we can take a deep breath and exhale. And I'm grateful to Tricia for assuming this incredible responsibility, and I'm eager to see our parks only improve in the years to come. Thank you, and please join me in welcoming our next parks commissioner, Tricia Shimamura.
Commissioner Tricia Shimamura, Department of Parks and Recreation: Good morning. Thank you, Mayor Mamdani, for this tremendous honor. I am humbled to serve as your incoming commissioner of Parks and Recreation, and I'm beyond proud to lead the agency that I love so much, and that touches the lives of millions of New Yorkers each and every day.
I began my career in public service as a social worker in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, working with students and their families who were truly failed by [the] government. They were navigating broken housing, education, criminal justice systems, systems that seem designed to allow these families to fall through the cracks. And when you walk down the street, it would truly feel as if the built environment itself had turned its back on these kids and their families. For blocks and blocks, all you would see would be sparse, broken sidewalks, empty storefronts, and not a park in sight.
I knew then what I know today. We have a responsibility as a city to do more. Mayor Mamdani has rightfully outlined a vision for a more affordable city where every New Yorker, not just the few, can grow and thrive, and where government works for the people. I deeply appreciate and understand that [the] Parks [Department] has a mandate to uphold and a critical role to play in the future of our city.
Parks is the agency of affordability. With over 30,000 acres of parkland, playgrounds, and sports courts, we are the official backyard of New York City families, providing children safe places to play and learn. Our pools and beaches are where New Yorkers learn to swim and cool off in the heat of the summer, at no cost whatsoever.
Our community gardens and recreation centers are where New Yorkers connect with each other over a game of table tennis, a fitness class, or pulling weeds in the garden. And our trees, wetlands, and forests are cooling down our city. They are the backbone of green infrastructure that is absolutely essential in our collective resiliency and the response to climate change.
Our work is purpose-driven, powerful, and serves the public good. It is also run entirely by the 24 hours a day, seven days a week effort of incredible men and women who show up in bitterly cold temperatures, like today, or the high heat of summer to ensure that our public spaces are clean, safe, and welcoming to all New Yorkers, regardless of income, race, or zip code.
It has been my sincere honor to work alongside these incredible public servants and my fellow parkies and to step up to lead them now. As commissioner, I will work to ensure that our parks aren't just free, but they're engaging spaces that New Yorkers can be proud of. We will hold every park to the same level of significance as we would our own backyard, because we know that that's what we are.
And we will provide new and meaningful ways to engage, be it through thoughtful programming, a cultural festival, or simply taking in the beauty and serenity of the natural world that exists alongside our dense urban city. And we will be unapologetic in our defense, preservation, and enhancement of our park system that is absolutely critical to the future of New York City.
I want to thank the village of mentors and friends and colleagues who have guided me and continue to be that which I aspire to. I also want to thank my husband, Dov, and my two kids, Teddy and Ollie, who are just my inspiration for everything. Thank you again, Mayor Mamdani, for your trust in me. And thank you to my beloved fellow parkies, park advocates, park lovers, and everyone else who has ever enjoyed a walk in the park, for your partnership as we embark in this new era together. Thank you.
Question: Question for the new commissioner. This is the High Bridge, obviously. When we open, we open. They also designed markers, every mile, that start off at the Yonkers border, they go by Bronx Science, they come all the way to here, they go there, and then they stop. The markers were never installed south of High Bridge Park. They are supposed to go all the way down to the library. They have been designed – all they need to be is fabricated and installed. Is that something that you will get done?
Commissioner Shimamura: Sure. We're certainly open to looking into where those markers are. I personally love not only features in our parks that help people navigate, but also just help surprise and delight park lovers, so that they understand a little bit more of their history. So absolutely, we're open to looking into this, and we'll follow through on seeing how we can get it done.
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