A lot of New Yorkers spend their weekends frolicking in the city’s 1,700 parks, but Mitchell J. Silver takes his visits more seriously than most. As the New York City parks commissioner, Mr. Silver picks a different borough every Sunday, packs his beloved camera and sets off to observe and document how a select few parks are being used and how they could be improved. A born-and-bred New Yorker, the 55-year-old urban planner recently returned to the city after serving for nearly a decade in North Carolina as the planning director for its capital city, Raleigh. Mr. Silver lives with his wife, Mary, 48, an administrator for the nonprofit Brooklyn Community Services, and his daughter, Rachel, 17, in Downtown Brooklyn.  MORNING WORKOUT I get up a bit later on Sunday, about 8 or 8:30, and I go work out in the fitness center on the first floor of my apartment building. I use the stationary bike, or sometimes I jog on the treadmill. I lift some weights and do some situps, and that’s about it. It’s very convenient.  BREAKFAST WITH A VIEW On weekends we go to Starbucks. I usually get coffee, nothing fancy, and then I’ll get a breakfast sandwich. We usually bring Starbucks back to the apartment and read The New York Times for a while. We live on the 34th floor, and there are beautiful, unobstructed views. We can see Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn. It’s panoramic. I felt that if I was going to come back to New York, I wanted to see New York.  EXPLORATION I will pick a borough, and I’ll go to a park I haven’t seen before, and then I’ll choose some smaller parks and playgrounds nearby. I usually see four. I’ll prepare my camera and then I head out around noon. I like to see parks by myself. I just do my own reconnaissance. I want to see who is using the park, how they are using the park. Are there children, couples, elderly people? And then I look for the level of care in the park. I photograph it all.  QUEENS FOR A DAY I recently went to Queensbridge Park, right on the East River. Over all it was well used. There was a touch football game going on, and there was a “friends of” group that had a trailer where they stored equipment. The park needed some capital work; that was the first thing I noticed. There were some drainage issues, and the artificial turf looked like it was getting to the end of its life cycle. Then I went to Murray Playground. It was a delight. It had a beautiful amphitheater, a beautiful turf field and gardens. And I found a volunteer gardener who was taking care of the gardens. There were kids playing in the spray showers.  DOING DUMBO We’ll then do something together as a family. We might go to Brooklyn Bridge Park or we’ll walk around Dumbo. I love Brooklyn Bridge Park because it’s so long and has different experiences as you walk down. It’s just a great walk with beautiful views. I just never get bored there. It’s one of my favorite parks in the city.  PICTURE THIS We also like to go to Union Square because there are movies and good restaurants and my daughter loves Barnes & Noble. My wife and daughter go to the bookstore. I just walk around taking pictures. My father was a photographer, but I do it as a hobby. I would like to spend more time getting better. I have a very nice Nikon D7100 camera. In my presentations on urban planning and parks, I like to use my own photographs.  PASTA, PIZZA If we’re in Union Square, we’ll eat at Vapiano on University Place. My wife and daughter are vegetarian, so we pick the places where they have good options. The restaurant has fresh pasta, and you pick your dishes and they make it right there. Or we might go to a place right next door to our apartment building, called Forno Rosso. Then we go home and have dessert there.  KEEPING UP WITH TRENDS We all hang out in the living room and the TV is on, but we’re talking and I’m on my phone or iPad looking at my Twitter feed. My daughter is on YouTube, and my wife is reading a book. I’m a social-media addict, so I’ll be on Twitter, reading articles and searching for other things. I follow 350 people, and I have lists I can create, and on weekends I go to the topic areas. I always like to be up on the latest trends in planning. We have a TV in the bedroom. I’ll see if there’s a reality show that is mindless so I can fall asleep. I’m usually asleep by 12.  #SundayRoutine readers can follow Mitchell J. Silver on Twitter on Sunday @mitchell_silver.  A version of this article appears in print on August 9, 2015, on page MB2 of the New York edition with the headline: A Walk in the Parks. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
Mr. Silver works out at the gym, takes his camera to various parks to survey how the city’s public spaces are being used, and spends time with his family and on social media.