Protecting and improving the community for the people who live and work here

Absurd (see below DOT proposed months, days, hours):

July to December                Monday to Sunday                           5pm- 11pm

Fire hydrant on right appears to be blocked. School in background

Sara Roosevelt Park Community Coalition

Opposing Open Streets application Forsyth from Canal to Hester Street From July 1 to December 1, 5pm-11pm – every day.

In Sara Roosevelt Park we have long fought to keep this park safe, beautiful, and activated for the people who live and work here, as well as for the larger public. For those with little or no agency we oppose actions that ignore their presence and common sense needs.

Probably the most compelling argument not to use this area as an “Open Street” was best made by a recent GQ article about “this slice of Chinatown” -the Canal/ Forsyth Street area.

“surveying the scene unfolding in front of him…looks downright Bourdainian.”

-GQ article

Not quite. Anthony Bourdain consistently “demonstrated a sincere interest in the cultures and people he encountered, fostering empathy and understanding.”  

Not this.

The article hypes a presumption that if you’ve never been somewhere, it’s a barren landscape – now ‘discovered’ – a blank pallet for the newcomer’s reinvention.

“this slice of Chinatown was simply where different creative scenes found common ground in heavily relaxed attitudes around drinking on public asphalt”. -GQ article

The neighborhood is proclaimed as an edgy scene with outlaw vibes:

Names are dropped, enticements for newcomers abound: “amazing”: a “hotspot”  “for the “loitering culture” …“the crowd is attractive” “sky-high summertime block party” “handsome Italian bartenders” “hangout for the city’s creative class” “I live mostly in LA” “Tesla..in the middle of the crowd” “a crowd of people wearing vintage designer outfits.” “This place is popping, and it’s a fucking Tuesday night.” “the concept of “seeing and being seen”. -GQ article

And it clarifies that this crowd functions with a different set of rules than ‘locals”:

“Legally speaking, the concert wasn’t associated with the bar,” Poe says with a grin. “But spiritually, it was.” -GQ article

Meanwhile…

This “open” area is used for parking for teachers in three schools at 100 Hester Street, (aka 36 Forsyth Street): Pace HS, Emma Lazarus HS, and MS 131:

It would be in the ‘backyard’ of this student body: Asian: 8% 45% 81%, Black 33% 10% 6%, Hispanic 51% 33% 11%, White 4% 9% 2%, ELL 2% 80% 33%, Special Needs 20% 0% 25%. These are all good schools, but they are working with tough odds.

This area is in an official NYC Environmental Justice Area.

The poverty rate in Lower East Side/Chinatown was 24.8% in 2023.

Most residents are renters.

As to this claim:

“Crucially, the nearest residential buildings are far enough away to avoid too many noise complaints” -GQ article

Apparently this isn’t true. “their sound radiates as far as Hester Street [a block away] and beyond.” (for more see https://www.neighborsoncanal.com/ )

In photos, the seating appears to block a fire hydrant.

Three schools with ELL, Special Needs, and a vast majority students targeted by racism, a troubled park full of volunteers struggling to keep it safe and beautiful, local arts organizations offering works that illuminate the area as well as feed the soul while offering local merchants a venue, a vegetable/fruit market, a Chinatown community of small businesses, working/middle class/poor residents and workers who are trying to stay afloat – vs a scene that is not for any of them.

Back to Bourdain: “If you’re twenty-two, physically fit, hungry to learn and be better, I urge you to travel..Sleep on floors if you have to. Find out how other people live and eat and cook. Learn from them — wherever you go.”

Good advice for any of us seeking an interesting and respectful existence?

The people who live here, work here, go to school here, teach here, have to get up in the morning and go to work, school, or shop, or live, not glamorous, but important?

“We have nowhere else to go… this is all we have.”

With thanks,

K Webster

On behalf of The Sara Roosevelt Park Community Coalition

GC article “The Hottest Club In NYC Is a Parking Lot On Canal Street”

You don’t want to miss this production in Sara Roosevelt Park!!!

From an earlier Lo-Down podcast on Traven Rice‘s the Lo-Down:

Playwright Carmen Rivera: “We’re living in this divisive time when everyone is screaming at each other,” she said, “so let’s take a step back  and remember that we are living on the same planet. Everyone wants to be heard – giving space to their stories, and giving space to the idea that we should all listen to each other was the work…’Open your heart’ is what we want to say with the piece.”

Alexandra Aron Director

(Founder and Artistic Director of The Remote Theater Project)

“a community engagement project…based on conversations and workshops with…different communities that intersect in the park; the unhoused community, Chinese seniors and more recently, migrant workers who are temporarily living in hotels near the park.”

If you feel a lack of hope, nothing makes that better than spending an evening at FABnyc for the annual Community Hero Awards.

Everyday Lower East Side and Chinatown neighbors making a difference in the lives of others – and transforming their own life in the process.

Frank Arroyo presenter Wendy Brawer

Jeanie Chin presenter Jan Lee

Jenny Deida presented by Jamie Hawk

Terron Lemons presented by substitute

Margaret Yuen presented by Amy Chin

Trever Holland (absent) Ryan Gilliam presented (stay tuned for next year)

Thank you CitizensCommittee for NYC’s Abril Peña for leading us and for inviting A & E volunteers!

The organized, oiled and marked tools and tool bins, they scrubbed the patio chairs, moved large planters, moved trash out, they hefted soil into large planters, the scoured the garden for soil that wasn’t being used, they planted, weeded and rejuvenated spaces here. They pitched in with any task before them.

They took iniative and then offered even more help.

As decades long volunteers, we can’t tell  you what a difference it makes to get this infusion of assistance. Less alone, more aware of the good will of others – it matters. Thank you.

Rob and A & E Real Estate volunteers working in the BRC front gardens: Elizabeth Hubbard, Rivington House, Homeless Memorial and side gardens.

Gus, Debra and Abril!! Neighbors!

Coming to Worship the 1000 Year Old Cherry Tree

Life is good. Goodness is its character; all else is defamation.
The Earth is good. Goodness is its nature. Nature is good. Goodness is its essence. People are also good.

Goodness is our offering; our predictable yet unfathomable flowering.

Thankful and encouraged
Infused with our peaceful inheritance, Our peaceful inheritance,
May we not despair.

– Alice Walker

Thank you  to volunteer organizers Juliana & Hannah. To Lexi, Pilar, Luc, and Partnerships for Parks, And to Colleen (and thank you Sabina for stopping by too!)

Photos of the day:

Compost help

and fence painting:

Tessa’s Garden

Rob’s Garden area with memorials to Bette Hubbard, Rivington House, and those who are Homeless (and soon to be temporary site of our gardens that must move).

And the mothership: M’Finda Kalunga.

South Delancey Gardens: Ribbon, de Britto, Hua Mei, Middle

Sports, help, and more..

Thanks to Yaliza and Angela for helping us prepare for the butterfly releases of University Settlement’s Day Care program!!

Children’s Garden

Thank you to Colleen and food boss Liz!!

And the entire community – new and old…

Thanks Tom for taking on the planters!

The day begins with Bob and a young man who grew up here and now has a family of his own.

And appreciative visitors from England!

“The Muscle” moving mountains (or rain barrels).

Just some of the ‘talent’ that day!

Fixing things: Tom