You are lying on a blanket in the park, soaking up the rays, watching kids run around, and you reach over to find… broken glass? If you have been in the city long enough you have had an experience like this. Our parks are usually beautiful communal spaces, but it is impossible for them to escape the tradedy of the commons - good news though, since 2017 NYC has been collecting inspection records of how clean our public space are, and things are getting better!
Records indicate that since 2022, we have observed a 34% decrease in “filth” in our parks (and yes, the level of inspections appears constant at around 3,000 per year). The inspection data includes flags for the presence of five issues - animal waste, broken glass, illegal dumping, graffiti, and medical waste. Each of them have gone down in the past 3 years:
| Category | % Decrease |
|---|---|
| Animal Waste | 29% |
| Broken Glass | 31% |
| Illegal Dumping | 39% |
| Graffiti | 40% |
| Medical Waste | 50% |
Let’s focus on the two biggest drops - graffiti and medical waste.
Where did all the graffiti go?
NYC is a mecca for street art, some of which is iconic, other that is a nuissance. Since 2021 there has been a focused effort to remove illegal graffiti around NYC. Despite the efforts, Highbridge Park remains a leading place to spot graffiti.
As an aside, I used to live near 5Pointz, which was demolished and converted into whitebox apartments where you can rent a studio for $4k a month. Conflicted feelings on that one…
Wait, medical waste?
Yes, medical waste. In fact there is a whole dataset devoted to tracking syringes in NYC(perhaps to be explored on a later date). Data on medical waste is a little suspect - in particular, in 2022 Marine Park far surpassed every other park for medical waste sightings, with more then 50% higher than Highbridge Park in second place, however in subsequent years sightings dropped to at or near 0. This harkens back to a terrifying incident in the 80’s called syringe tide, where medical waste washed up on CT, NJ, and NY shores, devastating local businesses.
Looking at the concentration of medical waste in our parks, looks like the current “leader” is Estella Diggs Park:
If the description of Estella Diggs Park is meant to be true - particularly “encourages kids and New Yorkers of all ages to come outside” - then perhaps it is an area to focus prevention efforts.
Where is this going from here?
It is great that there has been an overall drop in “filth” in our city. More can be done though - and in 2025 Mayor Adams established significant permanant funding for the Department of Sanitation to continue efforts to clean our parks, including the second shift program to provide daily focused cleaning efforts for our highest use areas. It seems optimistic that we should continue to see the trend towards cleaner parks, and a little less broken glass when you are lounging on those warm summer days.
nyc parks inspections waste