By Jack Delaney | jdelaney@queensledger.com
GLENDALE — The Parks Department just created a tactical unit to make small repairs in local parks across the city, and New Yorkers have an eight-year-old boy from Brooklyn to thank for it.
In April, Maxime Kakhidze — an elementary schooler from Dyker Heights — was walking back from McKinley Park with his dad when a lightbulb went off. The park’s playground had been closed for almost two years. Why not post a video asking Mayor Zohran Mamdani to reopen it?
Hundreds of kids in every borough have responded to the election of a social media-oriented mayor by flooding platforms like Instagram with similar pleas. Sometimes they go viral: last week, a group of teenagers frustrated about the lack of slots for casual pick-up soccer games at Pier 5 in Brooklyn Bridge Park broadcast their concerns to Mamdani, racking up 300,000 likes in a matter of days. (The mayor hasn’t responded yet, but to be fair, there are a lot of requests.)
In Maxime’s case, it worked. Less than a month after his post, parks officials reopened the McKinley Park Playground to the public after moving to quickly complete its pending renovations.
Now Maxime’s ask is sparking broader change. On Monday, Mamdani held a press conference at the Dry Harbor Playground in Forest Park to unveil the “Renew Crew,” a new team of roving repair workers tasked with nipping minor issues in the bud before they require capital funding.
“I know the particular disappointment of when you take your child to the playground and the chain on the tire swing is broken, or the drinking fountain hasn’t been working for months and it’s a hot summer day,” said the fittingly-named Kathy Park Price, of the advocacy nonprofit New Yorkers for Parks. “Those things can sound small on paper, but when it’s a neighborhood park where you go every day, it’s not a small thing.”
The Renew Crew carried out one of its first “repair blitzes” following that morning’s event, touching up play equipment, benches, fences, the park house’s exterior, and two basketball courts behind the playground, while also mulching, pruning, and generally beautifying the area around a 9/11 memorial.
The crew features 24 painters, plumbers, and other specialists, and is expected to finish up to 30 projects per year — each in three weeks or less. The first five sites are Dry Harbor Playground in Queens, American Playground in Brooklyn, Fort Four Playground in the Bronx, Annunciation Playground in Manhattan, and Old Town Playground on Staten Island. You can track their progress at nycgovparks.org.
“No longer will New Yorkers have to wait months for city government to fix their parks and playgrounds,” said Mamdani. “The Renew Crew will show up, get the job done, and move on to the next location that needs them.”
The latest initiative aligns with the Mamdani administration’s continued focus on so-called “pothole politics,” a variation on the older catchphrase of “sewer socialism,” which aims to build popular support by addressing quality-of-life issues like trash and deteriorating roads.
But parks advocates want deeper investments. Although the mayor had previously promised to allocate at least 1% of the overall city budget to the Parks Department, an estimated $1.2 billion, his initial budget released earlier this summer only set aside $709 million. (The Trust for Public Land called it “an important first step” towards the 1% goal.)
At Monday’s press conference, officials cast the Renew Crew as a small but mighty — and certainly symbolic — component of the Parks Department’s sweeping effort to bring its green spaces up to par. The agency currently has 500 active projects, according to its online database, with another 225 proposed and 1,1519 completed since tracking began in 2013.
Regardless of its scope, those involved with the initiative said that the message it sends is essential.
For Maxime’s parents, the reopening of the McKinley Park Playground was a relief. But they appreciated the mayor’s response to their son, and what it says about the city’s broader approach to engaging with constituents, just as much.
“Where we grew up, we weren’t used to our politicians listening to us,” said Jane Kakhidze, who was raised in the Eastern European country of Georgia. “[Mamdani] is listening, that’s the important part.”
Maxime, standing on a stool at the presser to deliver his remarks, spoke directly to his peers — many of whom may be planning their own video for the mayor.
“My parents always told me that my voice matters, and I want other kids to know that their voices matter too,” he said, unfazed by the spotlight. “If you see something that needs to be changed, never be afraid to speak up.”
