New York thrives because of its crowded chaos. It’s where brilliant things emerge from people bumping into one another amid a thicket of skyscrapers, a tangle of subway lines, clogged sidewalks and a medley of neighborhoods as distinct as countries.

The urban maze that gradually replaced the landscape’s oaks, wetlands and dogwoods allowed humanity to flourish.

But when you jam 8.5 million people into a few hundred square miles surrounded by water, space quickly becomes scarce. It sets up a tug of war over the open areas that are left — the parks, the tree-lined river banks, the weedy, unused lots.

The people who live here have always wanted, and perhaps needed, a counter to the chaos.

At no time has this dynamic been more important than today, when New York faces its worst housing shortage in nearly 60 years. The city needs more homes and places to put them. But what does that mean for the city’s remaining open spaces?

How New Yorkers view and use these green spaces may have profound implications for the city’s future.