STATEN ISLAND, NY -- Joseph Homsey loves playground swings.

Going for a swing in Clove Lakes Park was something he did often as a child, when he stayed out in neighborhood parks until the streetlights came on. It’s something he can do now, just steps away from his new office.

“To be in Parks, you have to be a bit of a kid,” the native Staten Islander, who has two young children of his own, said while walking the historic outdoor space.

Homsey was named Staten Island’s new borough parks commissioner in June, and has spent every moment since then immersing himself in the parks he has loved since childhood. But he didn’t start his career with an eye on this position, which oversees the borough’s vast amount of public amenities and more than 7,700 acres of parkland; at first, he just wanted

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