{"id":5418,"date":"2025-05-16T16:51:43","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T20:51:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/weact.org\/?post_type=program&p=5418"},"modified":"2025-08-19T14:34:21","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T18:34:21","slug":"our-parks-our-backyard-improving-northern-manhattan-parks","status":"publish","type":"program","link":"http:\/\/weact.org\/es\/programs\/our-parks-our-backyard-improving-northern-manhattan-parks\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Parks, Our Backyard: Improving Northern Manhattan Parks"},"template":"","class_list":["post-5418","program","type-program","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","program_tax-our-parks-our-backyard-improving-northern-manhattan-parks"],"acf":{"details":{"featured_image":5419,"program_type":false,"abstract":"For those of us who live in Northern Manhattan and other environmental justice communities, local parks serve as our backyard and offer opportunities for recreation, relaxation, and respite. They also play a key role in helping adapt to the impacts of climate change, extreme heat and flooding."},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_hero_links","acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_hero_links":{"title":"","abstract":"","links":null}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_wysiwyg":{"content":"The communities of Northern Manhattan are disproportionately exposed to air pollution from multiple sources. In fact, Northern Manhattan \u2013 and East Harlem, in particular \u2013 has some of the highest asthma rates in the nation<\/a>. And like most environmental justice communities, they are among the most impacted by climate change, including extreme heat and flooding.\r\n\r\nAbundant and healthy parks can reduce these inequitable impacts, improving the health, safety, and wellbeing of these communities. Yet most of the parks in Northern Manhattan are underfunded and in desperate need of maintenance. And while we do have access to a good number of parks, our tree canopy \u2013 the parks, greenspaces, and street trees \u2013 falls short compared to many other parts of the city.\r\n\r\nTo help remedy this, WE ACT for Environmental Justice has joined forces with the New York League of Conservation Voters Education Fund<\/a> to launch a campaign \u2013 Our Parks, Our Backyards \u2013 to engage Northern Manhattan residents on parks issues and the importance of parks funding. As part of this campaign, we will be hosting a series of events throughout Northern Manhattan to bring together community members, park advocates, and elected officials to discuss our parks; to identify problems, solutions, needs, and goals; and to engage in the budget campaign to get our parks adequately funded and maintained.\r\n\r\n \r\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/weact.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Vital-Parks-660.jpg\")
<\/a>\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nUrban Forest Plan<\/strong>\r\nThe\u00a0Mayor\u2019s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice<\/a>\u00a0- in collaboration with\u00a0NYC Parks<\/a>,\u00a0City Parks Foundation<\/a>,\u00a0Natural Areas Conservancy<\/a>, and\u00a0The Nature Conservancy<\/a> - is developing an Urban Forest Plan<\/a> for New York City to equitably increase the existing tree canopy by 28 percent to help reduce extreme heat, storm water flooding, and air pollution. This plan will \"set a vision for the care, management, and equitable expansion of the urban forest - which includes all the trees on public and private land in New York City - and also for the ways communities can be involved in the future of the urban forest.\"\r\n\r\nIt's critical that our community provides input to help shape this plan, so that it will help address our needs as well. Learn more here<\/a>, and click here<\/a> to share your thoughts through June 16th.\r\n\r\n ","include_drop_cap":false}}]},"yoast_head":"\n