Mr. Stern said there was a black chief of recreation in Brooklyn and that most of the department's recreation center directors were minorities.
His chief alternative recreation, growing roses, helped get him over it.
He, too, said positions for which he would have applied, such as deputy chief of recreation for Manhattan, were never posted.
Another complainant, Walter Beach III, who was chief of recreation for Brooklyn Parks before resigning in 1999, described the indignity of training "Class of" employees who then were promoted over more experienced black employees.
Walter Beach III, who was chief of recreation for Brooklyn parks before resigning in 1999, said last week that at a goodbye party for a white parks employee heading off to Yale Law School, Mr. Stern said the employee would soon be with people like the "Rockefellers and Duponts" and "the quota kids".
A Hispanic man, he applied for a job as Coordinator of Pools in Manhattan, a position with a higher salary, saw it given to a younger, white subordinate whom he had trained, and then watched that man rise -- ultimately to deputy chief of recreation in Manhattan -- in part on the basis of his experience as pools coordinator.
The complainants pointed out that all of the chiefs of operations and maintenance in the boroughs are white, while only the lower ranking posts of recreation chief was sometimes filled with minority workers.
Thomas Morrissey, D.E.P. bureau chief for outdoor recreation, said the Great Park Pursuit game promotes activities such as nature walks, scavenger hunts and fishing contests at eight state parks.
"Over and above that, there are probably 2,000 or more complaints about A.T.V.'s" in a typical season, said Thomas Morrissey, the environmental department's bureau chief for outdoor recreation.
American law also criminalized their chief forms of recreation, including gambling.
