Changing Times in Recreation
- chasmccabe
- May 19
- 4 min read
Updated: May 20
By Charlie McCabe

Since the 2020 pandemic and its aftermath, there’s been a big shift in recreation in public parks. Usage, especially of indoor facilities, went down during the pandemic (given that many facilities were closed for over a year) and still haven’t recovered to their pre-Covid usage levels. Public park agencies in cities such as Washington DC, Atlanta, and Denver have been investing in new facilities, especially indoor pools, gyms, and ice-skating rinks. But many have struggled to keep up with a growing maintenance burden in older facilities, resulting in unexpected closures. At the same time, there’s increased competition from private gyms that are trying to get back to pre-Covid usage levels, as well as nonprofits, such as the YMCA and Boys and Girls Clubs.
Theories for the continued sluggish use of indoor facilities range from parents keeping their children away to increased membership costs to reduced hours and accessibility, given the very real challenges related to hiring and retaining qualified staff (think lifeguard shortages).

The changing climate is another significant factor. With shorter, less predictable winters and longer and warmer summer seasons, the idea of running a traditional ice-skating concession between November and March seems too long, and offering a public pool option between late June and Labor Day weekend seems too short.

New York City’s Parks and Recreation Department has more challenges than most, given the number of facilities it has and the large population that it serves, but it has been approaching these challenges in some innovative ways, including collaborative investments, particularly through collaboration with nonprofits. The city has a growing number of public-nonprofit partnerships operating aspects of the parks system, and I’m going to present a few specific examples at Prospect Park in Brooklyn, Central Park in Manhattan, and Brooklyn Bridge Park in Brooklyn.
PROSPECT PARK
Prospect Park is managed jointly by the Prospect Park Alliance and the City’s Department of Parks and Recreation. The Alliance fundraised for and built the LeFrak Center in Prospect Park, which it also operates, offering an outdoor skating rink in the winter that converts to a roller rink and large spray ground in the summer, as well as a café and boating concession on the adjacent lake. This $74 million project, completed in the early 2010s, dramatically revamped the southeastern portion of Prospect Park. The first decade of operation was managed by a concessionaire. In early 2025, in a shift, the Alliance hired a Director of the Center to oversee operations and work with several vendors to provide services going forward. The center also provides cultural events, including Molière in the Park, during the spring seasonal transition period.

CENTRAL PARK
In many ways, what was demonstrated with the LeFrak Center at Prospect Park became a model for the just-opened Davis Center in Central Park. The Central Park Conservancy has a longstanding set of agreements with NYC Parks and Recreation to fund and manage much of the maintenance and operations, capital improvements, and ongoing programming for the park. Over the course of the last few years, Central Park worked to revamp an older ice rink on the edge of the Harlem Meer into a four-season recreational space, using sustainable (green) building techniques and restoring the flow of water into the Meer.


The new facility features a truly multipurpose outdoor space that is an outdoor swimming pool (managed by NYC Parks) in the summer, an ice-skating rink in the winter (concession managed by Central Park Conservancy), and an open, accessible turf field in the spring and fall, as well as indoor program space tucked into the hillside with a green roof. This transformation was a substantial investment ($160 million), but in the few weeks since it has opened, it has shown how many opportunities the flexible field provides, with an array of free exercise classes and programming.


BROOKLYN BRIDGE PARK
Brooklyn Bridge Park has a wide range of outdoor recreation facilities, including sports fields, sport courts, workout areas. At times they have also offered a temporary outdoor swimming pool and ice rink and a set of rock-climbing walls managed by a vendor. These operations have given them a lot of experience in what works when. Recently they have begun exploring the development of a new indoor facility, combining an indoor swimming pool with other amenities in the heart of DUMBO. (Survey here through May 31st.). In the meantime, the park just opened the new Pier One Pavilion, offering a new entryway to DUMBO, gender-neutral restrooms, and a food concession, Breads Bakery.

These collaborations offer new ways of rethinking recreation, especially in utilizing facilities that have traditionally been focused on a single activity in a single season. How they operate, evolve, and work to meet public expectations will be important to watch as U.S. city parks and public spaces continue to adapt to changing times.
Copyright 2025, Charlie McCabe Consulting, LLC.
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