MacDonald Park Withers Under Months Of Neglect

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — Months of neglect have left a quintessential Forest Hills green space overgrown and underfed, just as pandemic-era restrictions on indoor gatherings put New York City's parks at the center of the summer scene.

The trees and flowers of MacDonald Park first took a hit when the head of the volunteer group that helps tend to it, Stephen Melnick, left the city at the height of COVID-19's spread to care for a relative.

The Friends of MacDonald Park stopped their weekly waterings and trimmings as social distancing entered the local lexicon, but Melnick presumed the city's parks department would do their part to keep the park in good shape, he told Patch in a phone interview.

Then came the $84 million cut to the parks department's budget, as city officials grappled with the crippling economic circumstances wrought by the coronavirus pandemic.

The agency nixed 1,700 jobs doing seasonal maintenance and operations, representing a 45-percent decrease, according to a spokesperson.

Meanwhile, New York City parks are seeing even more use during the pandemic and, with that, a dramatic increase in the trash those visitors leave behind.

In some parks, workers have seen 9 tons of trash accumulate in one day — the equivalent of a weekend's worth of waste, according to the agency.

"Despite the loss of 1,700 seasonal maintenance and operations staff due to the pandemic-driven fiscal crisis plaguing our city, our Parks staff's continued service on the frontlines daily demonstrates how committed we are to maintaining our city's parks for the health and safety of all New Yorkers," Parks Department spokesperson Charisse Hill said in a statement.

MacDonald Park is still cleaned daily, but landscaping is only done "as able," according to the parks department.

Melnick, the head of Friends of MacDonald Park, said no weeding or watering seems to have been done. He last stopped by the park two weeks ago, during a trip back to the city, but was so saddened by its current state that he got right back in his car, he told Patch.

“That park is my heart," he said.

The park's three crape myrtle trees, worth thousands of dollars and purchased with grant money from City Council Member Karen Kosloswitz's office, have died. Normally, Melnick said, they bloom all summer long.

"Last week, my office reached out to the Parks Department to express my concern with maintenance issues in the park," Koslowitz said in a statement. "We were assured that maintenance matters would commence to be addressed within a week."

Koslowitz had the Association for Community Employment send crews to MacDonald Park to clean up litter, she said.

But the plants remain parched: The park's water box, where gardeners hook up hoses, has been broken since June, according to Melnick.

A parks department spokesperson told Patch that the water box is functioning but has low water pressure due to a broken valve, and that the agency is figuring out the best way to fix the issue.

Melnick said the agency could send a truck to water the plants in the meantime. He is organizing a group of volunteers to work on park maintenance in September.

“It’s a tiny park," Melnick said. "For crying out loud, what does it take?”