You love NY parks!

With help from Shawn Ness

From pristine beaches to awe-inspiring waterfalls, New York’s parks have been getting major love — and they’re now in store for some green from Gov. Kathy Hochul.

This past year saw more visits to New York’s parks than in any other year.

In total, there were 84.1 million visits to state parks in 2023 — 4.7 million than the previous attendance record set in 2022, Hochul’s office said this morning. Niagara Falls, the state’s most visited park last year, saw about 9.5 million visitors — almost one million more than second-place Jones Beach on Long Island.

But the successful attendance numbers for New York’s park system was just part of the good news for coming out of Albany this morning.

The outgoing commissioner of parks, Erik Kulleseid, is stepping aside with praise from Democratic lawmakers who applauded recent major proposed investments, including $100 million for Jones Beach.

“They were happy because of the amount of money,” Assemblymember Daniel O’Donnell, who chairs the committee on Tourism, Parks, Arts and Sports Development, said of the rousing applause from Assembly Democrats at today’s budget hearing.

Hochul’s proposed budget includes a total $450 million in capital funding for state parks, $250 million more than last year. That includes $150 million for swimming investments.

Kulleseid testified at the hearing that those funds would be doled out in the form of grants to local governments who develop more public pools. The money isn’t for pools on state parkland.

“There's a real commitment to making sure those are in underserved communities,” Kulleseid said. He said they’re currently taking input informally on how to structure the grant program.

The parks department is also working to