NY4P in the News Here is the Friday morning parks news round up.
“We cannot alone overcome the systemic failures that have maintained the status quo we know today,” writes K Webster, President of the Sara Roosevelt Park Community Coalition and Play Fair member. “We need our policymakers to prioritize parks equity starting with investing and centering equity in a citywide plan.”
“In 1934 a newspaper editor celebrated the opening of Sara Roosevelt Park as “the birth of a new Lower East Side.” Built to provide relief for those living in tenement housing, it was by far the largest park serving the diverse communities across the Lower East Side and Chinatown.
For decades, this park lived up to that promise.
But as the city deteriorated in the late 50’s to 70’s, the park spiraled into violence with drug and sex trafficking. Park centers closed until the neighborhood stood up to wrest it back.
Out of those ashes, along with traditional park spaces, arose the Hua Mei Bird Sanctuary, M’Finda Kalunga Garden, Golden Age Center, bocce court, turtle pond, chicken coop, and the unique ‘Pit’.
Today, the park remains an essential refuge of gardening, nature, chess and sports, playgrounds, shared resources, and celebrations honoring cultures in this stretch of the city. “
Read on here
“Our community does the work.”
