Parks Special Events

1 Introduction

Public life in New York City is closely tied to its parks. Throughout the year, parks host a wide range of activities—from seasonal festivals and fitness programs to mobile units and small neighborhood events. As a foreigner, it’s a good way to get to understand the local life from those events.

On the other hand, the arrival of COVID-19 disrupted such rhythm abruptly. Many park events might be canceled or scaled back. It’s also meaningful to look through these patterns to see the effects from the pandemic.

This project examines how NYC park events evolved before, during, and after the pandemic. Specifically, it focuses on three dimensions of change: the timing of events throughout the year, the composition of event categories over time, and the spatial distribution of attendance across the city. By comparing these dimensions across multiple years, the analysis traces how the pandemic disrupted existing patterns and how public life gradually re-emerged in new forms.