Visitors to the US Open get a luxury experience, while Flushing Meadows Corona Park’s everyday users get broken bathrooms, flooding, and underinvestment, park supporters say.
BY COLE SINANIAN
cole@queensledger.com
FLUSHING – On August 23, thousands will descend on the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on the north end of Flushing Meadows Corona Park for the annual US Open tennis tournament. These guests, some of whom paid more than $700 for tickets, will receive a premium experience: comfortable amenities, luxury shopping opportunities at Polo Ralph Lauren and Lululemon, cocktail lounges, and even $26 caviar-topped Korean-fried chicken.
But for residents of the surrounding neighborhoods of Flushing, Corona, Forest Hills and Kew Gardens, collapsing infrastructure, disgusting, unusable or rarely open bathrooms, puddles the size of lakes, litter and chronic flooding exacerbated by climate change render the 897-acre park nearly unusable at times.
Long hailed as the flagship park of Queens, Flushing-Meadows Corona Park has suffered years of under-investment, with Central Park getting 277 times more private funding per-acre than FMCP despite being 50-acres smaller, per a 2025 report by the Center for an Urban Future, a think-tank.
But with recent funding commitments from local elected officials and a pledge from Queens Borough President Donovan Richards to reinvest in the park, FMCP could finally be about to get the love its users say it deserves. At a rally in support of the park Thursday, August 13, held below the Unisphere next to Queens Theater, local stakeholders, activists, faith leaders and community members expressed optimism that local leaders are finally starting to take their park seriously, but called attention to the chronic neglect that they said has made for vastly different park experiences existing side-by-side.
While visitors to concerts — like the Governor’s Ball, held in FMCP each year — and sporting events like Mets games or the US Open have access to working restrooms, everyday park goers are forced to use the public facilities near the north entrance, which are frequently out of service. During his speech, local faith leader and Co-Chair of Queens Power Reverend Patrick O’Connor recalled failing to find a working restroom on a walk in FMCP one recent evening, before overhearing a jogger ask a police officer to point him towards one, to which the officer replied, “That’s a good question.”
”If you come to a baseball game, you get a high quality experience,” O’Connor said. “But if you live here and this is not your playground, you get an unsafe, unkept, and unsuitable experience.”
Attendees Thursday also cited flooding — particularly in the area around Meadow Lake in the park’s southern region — as a major concern, with the park’s plumbing system having not been updated since the 1964-1965 World’s Fair. This has led to water overflowing from the lake’s shores and pooling into enormous puddles that can take days to dry each time it rains. Others called out the City’s failure to address litter and chronic delinquency in the form of public intoxication and urination as barriers to local families’ ability to enjoy the park.
“Somebody who really cares about the park, that’s what we need,” said Kew Gardens resident Edward Howards, who carried a sign that read “Millions For Tennis, Pennies For Our Park,” in an interview after Thursday’s rally. “Somebody who comes here and does everything that needs to be done.”
Several speakers lauded Queens Borough President Donovan Richards and City councilmember Shanel Thomas-Henry’s, who announced a $22.5 million investment to revamp the park’s Playground for All Children on July 30. Richards also announced the formation of a new task force dedicated to securing private and public funding for the park, and to ensuring that private companies that use the park also support it financially.
”We should all be encouraged, but so much more is needed,” said Center for an Urban Future Executive Director, Jonathan Bowles, in his speech Thursday. Bowles credited Richards’ prioritization of the park to the political pressure brought by the local organizations at the rally, which was organized by the Queens Community House and Queens Power.
According to Queens Community House Director of Community Engagement, Anna Dioguardi Moyano, the group’s campaign to support the park began two years ago, after community members grew frustrated with FMCP’s decline and their increasing inability to enjoy the space with their families. The group has since hosted monthly cleanups, though the park’s expansive nature has complicated community preservation efforts.
“I think that’s a big part of why it has been neglected and underfunded for so long. There isn’t really a unified community advocate for the park because it touches so many people.”
The Center for an Urban Futures report estimated $15 million needed annually to maintain the park. The Alliance for Flushing Meadows Corona Park, the park’s private conservancy group, had a 2025 budget of just over $500,000, though FMCP receives additional funding from NYC Parks in the form of capital investments.
Unlike the well-endowed Central Park Conservancy, whose annual operating budget exceeds $74 million and allows the conservancy to employ 400 staff members, the Alliance for Flushing Meadows Corona Park has no full-time staff responsible for maintenance.
In an email statement, NYC Parks Department spokesperson Judd Faulkner pointed to the 15 capital projects currently underway at FMCP, including the $56 million reconstruction of the New York State Pavilion Observation Towers, a $41 million project to replace the gates that regulate flooding at Flushing Creek, and a more than $10 million project to rebuild electrical vaults damaged in Hurricane Sandy
“NYC Parks remains steadfastly dedicated to preserving and enhancing this treasured landscape, recognizing it as one of our most beloved and heavily utilized parks that deserves our unwavering commitment to excellence in stewardship and care,” Faulkner wrote.
Still, Bowles noted that greater maintenance funding is needed from City Hall to address the park’s major issues, and questioned how useful some of the capital projects — particularly the observation towers at the State Pavilion — are to FMCP’s everyday users.
Speaking to the Queens Ledger in an interview after the rally, Bowles recalled a press conference Mayor Mamdani held at FMCP in November 2025, just after his election win.
“When he announced his transition team, he had the press conference right under the Unisphere,” Bowles said. “So I’m hoping he remembers this park. He is from Queens.”
