Locals say the city’s budget cuts and lack of maintenance have fueled the park’s decline, with complaints to 311 nearly doubling compared to last year.

What was once a jewel of North Brooklyn — the go-to gathering spot for hipsters, stroller-pushing parents, and dog lovers — is now being described by furious residents as a public health hazard.

McCarren Park, straddling the line between Williamsburg and Greenpoint, has become overrun with rats, trash, and even discarded syringes, leaving locals outraged and demanding immediate city intervention.

“It’s really upsetting because we moved here and we thought we would be able to use this park,” said Eloise, 27, a Greenpoint resident who frequented the park with her partner and their 2-year-old dachshund, Me-Me.

But their sense of neighborhood bliss turned into horror when Me-Me ended up chewing on a syringe left on the ground.

“When he picked up a hypodermic needle, we were done,” Eloise’s partner Mike, 33, told reporters. “He was chewing on it. I pulled it out of his mouth and I was like, ‘Oh my god!’ That was the last time we brought him in the park.”

The problems have been building since the beginning of the summer. Trash piles have swelled, garbage cans are regularly overflowing, and the sight of rats in broad daylight has become alarmingly common.

A 33-year-old mother named Hanna described the unsettling scene: “An hour ago, I saw a rat, in broad daylight, right there under the stroller. It’s not the most pleasant experience to see when you’ve got a 4-month-old in your arms.”

According to 311 data, complaints about McCarren Park have nearly doubled this year compared to the same period in 2024.

While nearly half of those complaints were noise-related — fueled by late-night club music at the McCarren Parkhouse venue — the others involved everything from homeless encampments and illegal fireworks to garbage buildup and hazardous debris.

A recent visit revealed mounds of refuse piled along the pool’s far side, including cardboard boxes, tree clippings, and bamboo stalks, all stewing in the late-summer heat and producing a rancid stench that only added to the chaos.

Longtime residents say the worsening rat infestation is directly linked to the garbage problem. Williamsburg local Arielle Smith, 36, said she’s counted between 10 and 15 rats on some visits and even watched her dog kill four of them.

“The number of them has picked up because the garbage is on the rise,” Smith explained. “The trash cans are overflowing on the other side of the pool. There’s a penned-in area, and I’ve started seeing needles there, too.”

Social media has become another outlet for frustrated locals. On Reddit, one Brooklyn resident wrote: “It’s about people who don’t live in the neighborhood coming to party in a trendy park and then going back home after they’re done.

Transmitter Park in Greenpoint became like this once the neighborhood blew up.

The level of trash led to the place being overrun with rats to a point where I didn’t even want to sit down.” Others complained about finding pizza slices, beer bottles, and even water bottles full of urine dumped right next to empty trash cans.

The frustration has also sparked finger-pointing at City Hall. Councilman Lincoln Restler, who represents the area, placed the blame squarely on budget cuts made by Mayor Eric Adams’ administration.

He noted that more than 1,600 seasonal Parks Department workers — roughly 40% of the staff — were cut in the past year, gutting the very crews tasked with keeping McCarren Park clean.

“The Adams administration has failed residents,” Restler said, adding that his office has been forced to allocate \$60,000 in emergency funds for garbage containment and rat prevention.

He also said his office has organized multiple volunteer cleanups, bringing hundreds of residents together to pick up what the city has neglected.

For many locals, these stopgap efforts aren’t enough. The stench of rotting trash, the scurrying of rats, and the sight of syringes have left families questioning whether McCarren Park is safe at all.

“This summer, we’ve seen 10 to 15 rats here in the park,” Smith reiterated. “It’s like the city doesn’t care anymore.”

NYC Parks officials, for their part, pushed back against accusations of neglect. In a statement, the agency said McCarren Park receives daily trash pickups, with “hot spots” attended to more frequently.

They also pointed to the city’s *Second Shift* initiative, which deploys staff in the evenings and weekends to combat litter and graffiti across 121 parks citywide.

Officials also touted a new anti-dumping rule that increases fines for illegal dumping from \$1,000 to \$5,000 for a first offense and up to \$10,000 for repeat violations.

Still, for the stroller moms and dog owners who once flocked to McCarren Park as a haven, these assurances ring hollow.

The lived reality — rats darting under benches, piles of refuse spilling onto pathways, and discarded drug needles lurking in the grass — makes the park feel less like a neighborhood refuge and more like a hazard zone.

“We’re forming a Friends of McCarren Park group to sustain our community’s commitment to keeping our park clean,” Restler said, promising a grassroots push to reclaim the space. But until real changes come from City Hall, many residents are choosing to stay away.

For a neighborhood that once bragged of artisanal food fairs, family picnics, and trendy outdoor concerts at McCarren, the current state of the park feels like a betrayal.

As Hanna put it, watching a rat scurry under her stroller, “It’s not what you expect in a place that’s supposed to be for kids, families, and dogs. It’s really upsetting.”

Now, the question hangs over Williamsburg and Greenpoint like the stench of the park’s garbage piles: will McCarren be saved, or has Brooklyn’s once-prized playground already been lost to neglect?