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FDR Park’s iconic gazebo. (Kimberly Paynter/WHYY)
If you live in South Philly, it’s not your imagination: Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park is having a moment.
As COVID-19 restrictions pushed more residents outdoors, many urban parks saw attendance surge — and city officials say FDR hit “unprecedented” levels of use. They estimate that park trash collection, one rough measure of usage, increased by 50% since last year in a park that already saw hundreds of thousands of annual visitors by some estimates. More than 900 on-site parking spaces are now regularly maxed out on weekends, and new park volunteers have arrived by the dozens.