Gov. David A. Paterson today bemoaned the closing of dozens of state parks — as he attended a ribbon cutting for a new park in Manhattan.

The governor, whose administration today shut down 55 state parks and historic sites, including several popular sites in the Buffalo area, said he had no choice. And no, he said, he did not find it ironic that on the same day as the closings he spent part of his morning at a ceremony for a new section of the Hudson River Park along Manhattan's west side.

"This kills me to stand in a park knowing that I have closed down 41 parks and 14 other

cultural sites," Paterson told reporters after the ribbon cutting for the new park section

that he said was planned well in advance of the closing notices for state parks around the

state.

"I don't want to do that. It pains me to do that," he said of his state budget plan that today

closed Woodlawn Beach, Knox Farm, Joseph Davis and other facilities in Western New York and

elsewhere.

Related: Twin barriers placed at entrance to Woodlawn Beach

The governor has refused to go along with a $12 million budget restoration pushed by the

Legislature to keep the parks open. Instead, he has been trying to use the closings of the

popular parks as one of several pressure points on lawmakers to get them to resolve

differences over the stalled 2010 budget for the fiscal year that began April 1.

Paterson called the shuttered parks "an unfortunate casualty" of the state's fiscal crisis,

but said New York's problems are years in the making.

"There were those who didn't make the tough decisions in the past who have dumped this in

my lap," Paterson said at the Manhattan event.

"We don't want to kill the summer for anyone," the governor said, adding that parks join a

long list of other popular programs facing cutbacks.