Food and Feedback -Sara Roosevelts Frontline Workers: Stories of Service
On Wednesday April 29th 2026 we asked a number of people who work in the park to give us there thoughts on a few questions.
We asked a number of community members to also come to listen, and after the panel, to join break-out groups afterwards to give their thinking.
Those responses are below.
We hope to get the transcript of the panelists answers to our questions within a month.
Photos
Opening
Panel Questions
Panel Responses (being transcribed)
Questions for the Break-out Tables
Break-out Tables Responses
Overview and Actions to Take
Perspectives:
Panelists Bios:
More Photos!
Out of these meetings and the experiences of many is:
DRAFT Proposal for Increasing Safety in Sara Roosevelt Park – Creating increased safety by siting issues and setting up deterrents
more photos below
Opening
Thank you all for coming and thank you to our panel and all our volunteers.
So.. “Why this meeting”?
Dr. Felton Earls, when he was at the Harvard School of Public Health, ran the most rigorous (and expensive) study ever done on reducing crime.
His conclusion? “Cities that sow community gardens may reap a harvest of not only vegetables, but safer neighborhoods and healthier children”.
Dr. Earls found that reducing crime depended on reducing concentrated poverty and providing a chance for the people of a community, the most impacted, to meet and solve problems by their actions and ideas.
Tonight, I’d like us to keep in mind a few things. Things that some of us know, and things, some of us don’t know. Such as..
What it’s like to be struggling without a clear path in hard times, what the pull of addiction does. Living with the impacts of generational poverty, living with the impacts of generational racism, being targeted because you’re a women, having lived through famines, being the target of violence, being homeless, being hated simply because you’re a member of a group, being young and trying to find a job or affordable housing, growing old and more fragile, being a parent trying to keep your family fed and safe, having the job of keeping people safe, but knowing you won’t always be able to.
Tonight, I’d like us to try to remember that.
And, to remember, along with the harsh realities here, that we also witness the best of humanity, every day in this park, from every walk of life:
-Children discovering flowers, worms, turtles, chickens.
-Gardeners who insist that there will be beauty here.
-PEP officers who answer the calls.
-Outreach workers whose paid or unpaid work is to offer resources or a way forward no matter how they feel – or who they’re trying to help feels.
-5th Precinct officers who work with Youth to build gardens and trust here.
– Artists and historians who bring us plays, art, music, history, and literal light.
-The elder, living in a shelter, offering a “bless you” to a gardener.
-Parks’ workers who do the vital, daily, and unglamorous work.
– The thrill of coming upon the Hua Mei birds.
-The homeless men who directed police officers to find the person who’d assaulted an elderly woman.
– Wellington Chen’s commitment to this park.
– A teenage girl, putting aside her panic, to tell her dying cousin, stabbed in a fight here, that she loved him.
– The dawning pride of some hardened denizens of the park on learning that this park’s land once belonged to Black farmers.
– Overworked, underfunded organizations still ensuring critical help.
-A ROAR Festival pushing back against hate.
– All of us who keep working, despite scarce resources, to make this park better.
We are all imperfect people. And all of us want a park that’s safe to be in and enjoy.
Tonight we get to listen to the people on this panel, to hear what they know (they know plenty), to honor their very different smarts.
And then to listen and think, together.
Writer Alice Walker reminded us, that we change things…make hope concrete, not by waiting for someone else’s “boulder of heroism”, but by our own actions, by deciding, “person by person, to bring our small, imperfect stones to the pile.”
Tonight we’d like your offering, your stone, your ideas, to add to our pile.
Thank you to Kim Fong, our BRC partner and host, who with her staff and her seniors, create this community oasis.
And to all of our (almost) tireless, always, generous partners: Ted Enoch and Sayde Wilson of Catalyst/ Partnership for Parks and Jennifer Vallone of University Settlement. Debra Jeffreys Glass and myself K Webster are of the Sara Roosevelt Park Community Coalition and we’re M’Finda Gardeners.
Debra will introduce the panel.
Panel Questions (Bios below)
-Short intro: name, organization/work. (we will have pointed audience to bios at tables)
-What is one thing you have learned from your work here?
-What is one success you have had here (that “made your day”)?
-One thing that has been difficult here?
-One thing you would like for this park that would assist your work?
-What keeps you going in this work in this park?
-What would you like to be asked?
Questions for the Break-out Tables
- Why did you come this evening?
- What is your connection to this park?
- What did you think about the panelists’ ideas for making the park safer and more accessible for all?
- What is one idea that you have to make the park safer and more accessible to everyone here?
- What is one thing you would like to see in SRP?
Break-out Tables Responses
TABLE 1 NOTES
Interests:
Public directory of resources in the park: food sources, mental health, etc. Phone #’s so neighbors know what to do. Pathways to work. Rob: many ask him for this.
DOE Fund uptown – something like this here?
Ideas
– Park tax so many fancy buildings how have them contribute /give back?
from Housing Works – Safe injection sites idea: HW is trying to open a safe injection site @ C & D Currently stuck in bureaucracy. Needs public endorsement and funding.
A solidified community voice needed. Next step: Brian to share materials with K
Testimony example who works with /near school. New Health Commissioner?
Health:
: Better signage for bathrooms. Need restrooms cleaned every hour/more cans!
: put fake camera where there is illegal dumping
” Need more $$ 1% for Parks, Police funded separately. Parks does a detail every Thursday with Sanitation/NYPD. CB 3 is the biggest district with the smallest resources.
: Power of reaching out to Council Member and Assembly Member. There is only one shelter that has single room options.
: Other parks have done community resource fairs.
: Around Juneteenth would be a good time.
Amazon worker are using playground @ Rivington Playground for their breaktime.
Why the new designs put benches and tables outside – but need this before the renovation.
Idea is there a way to do temporary benches and tables for Amazon in the interim?
TABLE 2 NOTES
Timed turns and asked not to interrupt whoever was speaking
– Here since the 70’s. We had boys clubs/girls club as kids. Park changed a lot. Maintenance needs to be better.
– Here since ’89. More people need to come out to clean up our sections of this park. Bob and others cleaned up the Park – but now needs help again. Bob built a garden named after the African Burial ground that was here. Prepare for impact of Bellevue intake center closing.
(Washington Heights) other events like this. Same issues where I live.
-UWS. She used to work down here advocate with AAFE (know K from AAFE), a lot of people are involved in the upper west side – let’s do that here.
-Brklyn. Do arts work in this park. Brought “Walking Amal” to the park after connecting with K. Every year Remote Theater does site specific stories/plays about this park and its people.
– 18 years here. This is my bike ride to work area. Worked on getting the two-way bike lane adjacent to park. I’ve lead bird tours here. NYC Parks worker – not speaking as that here. On Community Board 3 Parks Committee with K.
– 28 years in neighborhood, gardener with Bob – helping him with “circular economy” (redistributing used clothes, etc), we need more free stores, a laundromat, safe places to do drugs, agrees on shower bus.
: 10 years Safe Horizon, Street work homeless youth, wellness. ‘Professionals’ don’t want these outreach jobs. Need to recruit people wo have experience, but also have different communication skills. Wants to see sites for managing public drug use (and discards). Housing is a key issue. Can’t recover without some privacy.
Grateful for the people in this park who do this work on the ground – they have knowledge we need.
-Bring back Community Policing. Shower bus, Meetings like this, so people can’t so easily be set up against each other. Advocate for Parks budget, Go to meetings with 5th Pct to give your perspective. Go to Community Board meetings -advocacy.
-Take into account the legitimate fears of constituencies here: Anti-Asian violence was real here, vulnerabilities due to being elderly, female, GLBTQ. There is trauma of violence/death here (from and to every walk of life).
-Impacts of generational poverty generational racism is not a mental health issue – it’s a policy choice (One can go “crazy” if homeless for a long time -add “quick fix” street drugs or unmonitored Rx drugs to numb out -mental health deteriorates).
-Housing. Eliminated cheap SRO housing on Bowery, shot down the creation of a Safe Haven nearby, litigated for a decade against the LGBTQ friendly, deeply affordable housing for formerly homeless seniors of Haven Green. How get well/be well without a home?
Unknown speaker(s):
Everyone should have input that is heard.
Better outreach and referrals.
Publicize resources for health, mental health, housing, youth services for those uninsured (immigrants for instance).
TABLE 3 NOTES
I’ve been in a leadership position for two years as a co-chair in the committee. I’m invested in the park and I don’t normally feel unsafe in NYC. However, I do feel that way in the park often.
I am park of a professional community (Housing Works) who does service work in the park. I am a community liaison and I believe Harm Reduction principles are essential here, as the stigma around drugs and drug use are so rampant.
(Salma, Project Home) I was here to provide interpretation, but the program was so compelling, I stayed anyway even though no interpretation was needed. I think there is a need for eviction protection in this neighborhood. I do like this format because it helps us learn about communities in the Lower East Side.
I’ve lived here since 1978, raised my daughter here. My wife and I are here. “We’ve been overrun since Covid and it’s detracting from positive activities in the park. Police are unrespondent. This is a long-term project and we will need patience.
I do walk-ins in the garden and I help take care of the rats.
I’m a volunteer and I want to be part of making it better here.
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Getting together more often and building relationships, getting to really know each other
Getting and keeping the service providers together, networked, and supportive and in alignment is a really big, important opportunity. To build on this very program…
Wayfinding in the public. Better signs. Bathrooms. Services. Trashcans.
More learning about overdose centers around town. – Jenna would love to follow-up and offer an info session on this topic, and provide coordinated follow-up.
Our park feels like a sacrifice zone.
When do we need to call 911 and the police? When and how we need to understand if overdose protections are needed.
A drop-in center is controversial, but there is none south of 14th street in Manhattan (verify).
Does En Pointe have a successful model?
Get the Bike Rack out of Riventon pass through because it is interrupting flow
Might there be a resource fair? How do we become more aware of resources?
More signage and info-graphics.
Other report out information:
Signs, cards, backpacks.
More trashcans, water fountains, sharps containers,
How to share interests? A volunteer brigade?
Community policing?
A shower bus?
TABLE 4 NOTES
What is your connection to the Park?
Eight participants at table 4. Three from CBOs who do work in the park, two who live on the park and are very active users, one from M’finda Kalunga garden, two were invited by heavy users of the park and are occasional users.
Why did you come to the event?
- Two came because they felt it is important to be good neighbors by participating in civic life
- Interested in complex problems that affect the city as a whole (issues in NYC parks) and possible solutions
- Want to advocate for the soccer pitch between Broome and Grand to be fixed up and reopened
- Wanted to share they work they do to help the unhoused in the park
- Even though they no longer live in the LES, they feel very connected to the neighborhood and want to stay involved
- Some say the LES is over served but this participants doesn’t agree and thinks the neighborhood is underserved
- Was looking to see what the current Mayoral Administration can / will deliver to the park
- To think how to make the park safer for all
What did you think about the panelists’ ideas?
- Liked the open discussion about complex problems
- Liked to learn about all the resources that are available to park. Didn’t know so much help was there
- Appreciated the perspective that the homeless also feel safe in the park and feel a sense of place there. And that it is important to work with them in a place that is also their community
- Parks are very important and essential places to all even the unhoused. It is community for them too
What is one idea you have to make the park safer / What is one thing you would like to see in the park?
- A volunteer trash pick-up brigade
- Or a paid community trash pick-up brigade (like the snow removal over the winter). This would allow folks make a difference in their community and work some hours that worked for their schedule
- More art projects, inclusive art projects
- We need to make sure that if the park is safe it is truly safer, not just the appearance of a safer place
- More community patrols
- A bridge between the many communities that use the park (Chinese and non Chinese / youth and elders / homeless and those who live around the park)
- More trash cans
- More lights
- More water fountains
- More sharps trash containers
- Better sidewalks so that folks don’t trip and fall
- Fix and reopen the soccer pitch at Broome and Grand
- A more regular way for community members involved in the park and CBO staff who work in the park to share resources and intake information
- Forms for park users to share hobbies and interests (maybe a list or map?) so that it is easier to make connections among community members
- Better play grounds
- True community policing to come back
TABLE 5 NOTES
Question #1 Why did you come this evening? What is your connection to this park?
-First time seeing resources
-Asked to come and share
-Coming to talk about getting services in the park
-This became a community again. Something happened – now I’m hopeful
-The city has pushed folks here, and dropped the resources; “?” the unhoused in the community.
-Reasons for the unhoused – food equity work
-here to learn how we can help-
Know the culture
All are somebody’s mother sister
Everyone is somebody’s somebody
-Wanting to make this neighborhood a nicer place
-it’s a community
-Everybody tries to get along in general, although sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t
-Veteran of this park – long history of brining the community children, police, neighbors – can make change with community
-Listening to bring back
Question #2 What did you think about the panelists’ ideas for making the park safer and more accessible for all?
Allocation of resources – the changes that come with change in who is in the community right now – pass this park by for Eliz St Garden
-List all available resources for folks to share when needed (resource ‘cheat sheet”
-Be more visible – talk to folks – share resources so that passers-by cans share with . They are connected to who might need them.
-Understanding how affective the interventions are – police/providers
-The police and PEP can talk to folks “let us help you” Dialogue
-Homeless and drug dealers – stop and bless my mom who is in a wheelchair – they acknowledge her.
Question #3 What is one thing you would like to see in SRP? One idea to make the park safer and more accessible to everyone?
-How can the community (we) help make the shower bus happen.
-never accept ‘no’
-Community policing and PEP
-People trained to interact with all people without judgment and treating them with dignity.
-more social workers / a better ratio
-Rooms for folks to get services – drop in centers, laundry, restrooms
-cleanliness in general
– connect unhoused with volunteer opportunities – engage them where they feel they are contributing
-shower van /bus
-political will, council member and all politicians should be present and involved.
Overview and Actions to Take
Ongoing Actions for Community Members to Make
-Meetings like panel meeting: Share ideas, not get set up against each other.
-Advocate for Parks budget
-Go to meetings with 5th Pct to give your perspective.
-Go to Community Board meetings advocacy.
Increasing Safety As a Public Park for Everyone
We can’t allow violence, threats of violence, harms or destruction of people, pets, birds, trees or plants.
Return Community Policing to 5th Pct
Periodic Patrols 5th Pct
PEP Stationed In Particular Areas (for a time)
Other Safety issues (In no particular order):
Bikes – DOT/Parks
-Bikes need to be moved out of the Park on Rivington but kept on Forsyth (adds to activation)
-Bikes need to be moved out of Park on Stanton – but keep them on Forsyth (adds to activation)
-Bike lane one way going West – on Delancey. Bikes use Rivington because there is no lane for West bike traffic – bikes can’t get to the two-way lane on Chrystie.
Bikes and Car traffic inside Park
Planters and Barriers up with signs on Stanton and Rivington – “Not a thru Street for Cars or Bikes.
Parkhouses
Stanton and Broome Returned to community use and activation.
-Stanton was a youth center – return it for this purpose 7 schools alongside this park and nothing for girls or boys indoors in inclement weather/seasons.
-Broome Communications building for entire NYC Parks. Holds two people.
BRC at Delancey is an activated space – creates more safety
-Hester two floors. Top floor is Parks bottom floor is Parks. Site Communications 2nd Fl.
Delancey Southern Side:
-Concentrate Help/Assistance on Same Day: Shower bus, City Relief, Backpack guy. on with seating in open areas.
-Remove the low brick walls that accumulate trash.
-Fix the fencing of the Hua Mei Bird Area
-Bring back 5th Pct Community Policing.
-Kiosks with information and/or Cards/Info to pass out on where help can be found (for those in need and for “Good Samaritans”).
-Needles Kiosks
Trash
Need more rat-proof trashcans.
Sharps containers? Where?
Safety – Deterrents
-DOT fix the lighting all through the Park
– PEP on inner Park crossways?
DRAFT Proposal for Increasing Safety in Sara Roosevelt Park
Perspectives:
Take into account the legitimate fears of many constituencies here: Anti-Asian violence was real here, other vulnerabilities/targeting due to being elderly, female, GLBTQ. There is trauma from violence/death here (from and by every walk of life).
Impacts of generational poverty, generational racism didn’t start as a “mental health issue” – it was/is a policy choice. Those impacts can create the conditions for minds to become unstable. People cannot recover from trauma if they were or are homeless (especially if it’s been years). “Quick fix” street drugs or unmonitored Rx drugs -mental health likely deteriorates.
Housing. Gone are the cheap SRO housing on Bowery, nearby community shot down the creation of a Safe Haven nearby, litigated for a decade against an LGBTQ friendly, deeply affordable housing for formerly homeless seniors at Haven Green.
How do people get well/be well without a home?
Panelists Bios:
Photos Ted Enoch, Lee Elson, K Webster
Flyer created by Sayde Wilson
