Crocheron & John Golden Park is the12th largest park in Queens, with 62 acres of vital public green space. We are deeply concerned about the lack of attention to park infrastructure and natural areas affected by Hurricane Ida. 

• The pond, which is rapidly deteriorating
• (we are excited to announce this is TBD by Parks soon!)* A well-used path that connects upper Crocheron with lower Crocheron

Since Ida, the pond has seen an increase of debris that causes the water level to lower. NYC Parks has not made actionable progress on this project. The lack of attention to threatens the park’s wetland ecosystem. 

Our Community Relies on Our Park – Public Space Needs Investment & Care

• Golden Pond is one of Bayside’s natural treasures and our responsibility to maintain for future generations.
• Bayside has extraordinary flooding and restoring the pond can help protect the CIP from flooding during storms. 
• The pond now has the remnants of a 40 feet wide and 15 feet high retaining wall below neighboring homes. During Ida, the center of this wall gave way, this caused debris to create a mudslide of gravel with a backfill emptied into the pond and reduced the depth to an average of 2 feet (Emi McKinnely, Citizen Scientist, 8/2025).

By signing this petition, you are telling Mayor Mamdani, Queens Borough President Richards, Council Member Paladino, Speaker Menin, and Parks Commissioner Tricia Shimamura to support restoration of our park and creation of climate-resilient infrastructure.

* Edit July 16 2026  - We are excited that the Ida damaged path is being addressed by Parks! Parks also has another meeting set to review the state of. The pond - and we are excited to work with our local Community Board 11 Queens to advocate for city and state agencies to save the pond.  See the article from Queens Chronicle here. We are grateful for the support from the community and local journalist Michael Gannon -  and look forward to continuing to see this through to a solution.

"FEMA funding was available to restore the path, as is shown in the NYC Capital Projects Tracker (for 180k to repair the path) but Parks has not made actionable steps to make this happen... The damaged path has become overgrown. Even with funding approval for the restoration of the path, Parks determined that the repair is not possible due to the damaging flooding and has proposed to simply turn it into a nature path. "