In July 2026, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards announced a new Flushing Meadows Corona Park Task Force and a $22.5 million investment in the park’s Playground For All Children—America’s first-ever playground designed with both disabled and nondisabled children in mind. CUF’s Executive Director Jonathan Bowles was selected to serve on the task force alongside a number of local public and private partners.

This task force and investment come almost exactly one year after CUF released The Park Queens Deserves: a widely-covered report that documents years of chronic underinvestment in Flushing Meadows Corona Park (FMCP) and offers 20 recommendations to unlock the park's full potential. When the report was first published, the New York Times ran an article about the report titled “A Park That Floods Every Time it Rains.”

In one of these recommendations, CUF specifically urged city leaders to launch a “full-scale renovation” of the Playground for All Children. The $22.5 million investment is financed by $17.5 million from Queens Borough President Richards and $5 million from City Council Member Shanel Thomas-Henry.

This task force and investment will help realize FMCP’s potential as one of the most dynamic urban parks in the country—and, crucially, a far more attractive and inclusive open space and recreational resource for the mostly low- and middle-income New Yorkers who use it on a regular basis.

CUF applauds Queens Borough President Donovan Richards and Council Member Shanel Thomas-Henry for taking action to revitalize Flushing Meadows Corona Park. 

This impact builds on a number of CUF publications, including The Park Queens Deserves, Putting the ‘Rec’ Back in NYC Parks & Recreation, Paying for the Growing Needs of NYC’s Parks, A New Leaf: Revitalizing New York City’s Aging Parks Infrastructure, and Unlocking Public-Private Partnerships to Help Support and Strengthen NYC’s Parks.