Goals

Draft Proposals for Increased Safety in the Park: May 2026

Increase safety. Site issues and set up deterrents

We need PEP in predictable key places. They are both less provocative to some of our edgier people and reassuring to the public. Our “Young Explorer” 5^th Pct Officers also deter threatening behavior while building relationships across barriers. (But sometimes – you just need the police).

Parks Enforcement Patrol (PEP)  stationed in key areas of the park for a time.

DOT fix the lighting that keeps going out throughout the park. (The City insisted we remove HALO – the only consistent lighting on Rivington).

Other Safety Issues

– DOT Move Citi-Bikes outside of the Park at Rivington (and Stanton) to Forsyth Street.

–DOT Create a one-way bike lane companion lane to the Eastbound bike lane going West on Delancey

– NYC Parks ADA accessibility everywhere in the Park

-We need more of our Park Buildings restored to activated community use.

–NYC Parks Forestry to inspect London Planes for Widow-maker Branches and Dying Trees (three dead trees already counted – one dead tree fell across a street a few months ago)

– NYC Parks Rat proof or rat resistant garbage cans (accessible to general public in high use areas)

What can we do (other than clean-ups, building gardens and maintaining them)?

Continue to advocate for Parks budget to be restored to 1%. We need paid staff to keep this park in shape.

Community: attend CB3 Parks Committee meetings.

Community attend 5th Pct Community Meetings (Usually the last Wednesday of the Month at Confucius Plaza Residents Room-1^st Entry coming from Canal Street).

Advocate for NYPD to reinstitute “Community Policing” Police need to be familiar with who is here.

Advocate for Affordable Housing, Safe Havens and Budgets of our Non-Profit Partners and Advocates.

Who do we call in a crisis?

311 if NOT an Emergency

911 in an Emergency

PEP number for this Park? Someone close by?

5th Pct number for this Park? Someone close by?

We used to have the ability to text the Community Policing Officers. They were nearby, knew the people here, and they knew the park denizens. Much fewer time-wasting exchanges.

lighting on Rivington transverse

 

Draft Issues, Needs, and Proposals for Deterrents.

Locations

Area: Houston to Stanton

Issues: Sprinkler used as shower for homeless people. Playground goes unused due to conditions.

Need:

-PEP Foot Patrol in Area especially behind the Stanton Building in the shower/playground areas.

-Mobile Shower bus visits to this area or very nearby

Current Active Use:

Weekdays: Some use, local Basketball.

Volunteer Gardener cares for West Side of Chrystie (for decades). And keeps track of the East Side Garden.

Weekends: Heavily used, Basketball, events with amplifcation

Volunteer Gardener cares for West Side of Chrystie (for decades). Now willing to train high school students (project in planning stages)

 

Area: Stanton Storehouse

Issues: Speeding cars racing through this area. The bathrooms are constantly closed due to damage. No place for young people to gather indoors anywhere in this park in a low-income community. Despite the park having FOUR Parkhouses.

Need from NYC Parks:

-Stationary PEP officers on weekends

-Barriers to stop speeding cars.

-Return Stanton Building as promised in 1980’s to activated Youth Center.

– Return the inputs for girls volleyball games that used to happen here before the “Nike field” was painted.

– Need from DOT

• Install ‘Pedestrian Crossing’ & a Deaf Crossing Sign warning signs for bicyclists with the addition of the two-way bike lane.

Current Active Use

Weekdays:

The Storehouse Manager keeps that area safe: calm, watchful eye, and relationships in that neighborhood (and is a Blackbelt).

ELL High Schools across the street use the area.

Weekends:

We have informal food distribution on most Saturdays to address food insecurity. Required to clean up any trash left by partakers after they distribute.

 

Area: Stanton to Rivington Soccer fields and Basketball Courts

Issues: Dogs off leash in fields – dog feces.

When the “Nike” court was refurbished it eliminated a much-used (by girls) ability to have a Volleyball net. It needs replacing, because..sexism.

Need:

PEP Patrol on foot between Ball fields and Courts on Houston, Spray Shower behind Stanton.

– Need from DOT

• Install ‘Children Playground Crossing’ & a Deaf Crossing Sign warning signs for bicyclists with the addition of the two-way bike lane.

Current Active Use:

Weekdays:

Both courts used by sports teams and School across the street uses court as gymnasium (they don’t have one).

. Keeps area safer due to active use.

 Weekends:

Well used by soccer teams and basketball games. Keeps area safer due to active use. Though local pick-up soccer games harder to get time in the field.

 

Area: Rivington between the MK Garden and the Playground (and new Forsyth DOT Plaza)

Issues:

Cargo bikes/cars/bikes speeding through internal NYC Parks transverse on Rivington. Children run back and forth between playground and garden.

A hit by a cargo bike/any bike could be fatal.

HALO artwork on the fence reliably lit the transverse area. Had to be Removed. Community furious they had to take down artwork that represented an African burial ground here.

DOT lights do not work reliably and are out for months. Dangerous area.

Needs:

-NYC Parks:

-PEP Stationary in the transverse.

-Move Citi-bike to Forsyth ‘brown painted area” as is done in southern end of the Park.

-Planters installed to stop/slow cargo bike/illegal cars speeding through and using it as a cross street.

-Sprinkler system for aging Garden area and Gardeners.

-NYC DOT:

-Create a one-way west bike lane on Delancey to match the one-way going east. There is no way to reach the two way bike lane along Chrystie except through an internal Park busy thoroughfare.

-DOT Fix Lighting.

 

 

Current Active Use

 

Weekdays:

-BRC NYC Parks official senior protected space during daytime hours. Garden gate closed on Rivington.

-MKG Open two weekday Evenings: Bocce lessons. CSA distribution (after BRC closing hours)

-Rivington Playground: used by local parents and by University Settlement Daycare/families/Some adults use benches.

-Pilot project with volunteer opening MKG to local Daycare on Thursday mornings.

-Volunteer Gardener (former ED of Battery Park Gardens) tends new DOT MTA Plaza.

Weekends:

-MFinda Garden open – all volunteer

– Children’s garden area. Seasonal events and Children’s Garden events

-Rivington Playground: local families/visiting families and the  PuppetMobile

-Volunteer Gardener (former ED of Battery Park Gardens) tends new Plaza.

 

Area: Delancey North Side:

 

Issues

Enormous piles of trash collection

Need

–Weekday PEP seated inside BRC Senior Center vestibule – Vulnerable elders.

-Delancey Area: PEP weekend patrol

-ADA Ramp for patio between BRC senior Center and M’Finda Kalunga Garden (MKG)

ADA Ramp Completed! Thanks for Partnerships for Parks’ Catalyst led by Ted Enoch, SRPCC, BRC and MKG!

Active Use (Safety Assets)

Weekdays:

–Bustling BRC Senior Center

–SRPCC volunteer Gardener

-Jeff’s Bellevue Van presence. A safe zone with help, a deterrent to crime and offers of real help with results.

-BackPacks for the Streets– gave away backpacks on Delancey during the week. (unfortunately the leaders both died suddenly).

BRC vestibule- it helped)

Weekends:

SRPCC Gardener here is a Black Belt with good skills at dealing with troubled people.

 

Area: Delancey South Side:

 

Issues

-The Hua Mei Bird Sanctuary was broken into, fence broken, never fixed.

-Drug dealers/users in this area. Generally, no issues with drug dealers for gardeners (they aren’t looking for trouble).

-Users can be difficult.

-Due for funded complete renovation – derelict looking community frustrated.

-Entire Area looks abandoned.

-Sign stolen from Historic GreenThumb Garden here.

-Brick seating in front of the Ribbon and de Britto plots collects trash and drug use.

Need

NYC Parks

-PEP Patrols (currently the 5th Pct has it appearing to be fenced off)?

-A Shower Bus (Keeps folks out of the sprinklers in the children’s areas and water fountains in the park). When the Catholic Bishop Sheehan Center closed – no more showers here. Bus could bolster positive activated use and help people feel human again.

-Remove the two low brick walls that hide trash.

-Put tables in area visible to Delancey Street

Current Use /Safety Assets

Weekends:

-Activation: Hua Mei Birders. Tony here weekends/ others here weekdays– Most not coming anymore. Tommy (Hua Mei leader) then we took out their signage. Put signs up to let Tony/other birders know we are transferring their site to front of BRC temporarily for the reconstruction). Former Council Member Chin interpreted to get their thinking. Many of these men are very elderly, some have passed away. We intend to honor their legacy with the remaining birder- some Boy Scouts expressed interest in learning their trade.

Current Active Use: Sundays: Two experienced SRPCCoalition Gardeners care for two plots: Ribbon and de Britto (with a plaque acknowledging “The Land of the Blacks” 1657 history)

Weekdays:-Former Active Use: City Relief WAS here Thursdays – They offered food, listening, socks. Mostly elderly women and homeless men. Was an anchor of safety.

 

Area: Broome Area

 

Issues:

Active drug sales throughout – except inside ‘The Pit”

-When the renovation happens: Parks Dept car parking will be moved to Forsyth – tables and chairs will be installed – freeing this area to be fully a park.

-Football field: Fenced in (unsafe surface) but often broken into.

– Bathrooms unusable most times and/or locked.

– There is NO water source here

Need:

PEP officer in the Area of Broome Street Building? Or building staff visible (5th Pct patrols?)

-“Community police” used to patrol or drive inside through the park. Helped a lot.

-Take back Broome Street Parks Building to utilize this site for more activated use.

-Reconstruction start date- let public know where this is at

– Need a water source here.

Active Use

Weekdays/ Weekends:

-The Pit has community use. Helps.Very successful shared use area: Bike polo, unicycle polo, plays, events, Burmese Water Festival, New Museum events, Day care, Soccer, Martial Arts, Lion Dance practice, Tennis lessons, music, etc.

 

Area: Grand North Side

 

Issues:

-Busy Street with entry (ADA inaccessible – will change with renovation.

– Huge London Plane tree fell unexpectedly. Smashed two cars, grazed humans.

-NYC Parks Area plans for huge reconstruction were approved after a huge effort. Need action.

Lighting seems to be a constant issue.

-Built a memorial garden for a murdered young woman with SRPCC, Chinatown Partnership and Parks but there is NO water source here. Garden died.

Need:

NYC Parks

-Public needs information on this entire area. When is renovation coming? It’s abysmal here. 5th Pct acted to ensure neighborhood had safety information.

-Reconstruction start date- let public know where this is at

-London Plane inspections (throughout Park)

-water source

NYC DOT

-FIX Lighting seems to be a constant issue.

 

Area: Grand South

Issues:

-The stolen goods market is the activated use here, which may deter some things and incite others.

-MKG members who live here said they need help when people (who have nowhere else to go) sleep on their doorsteps after being pushed out of the park. What do they do?

-Encampments pushed out of the park wind up on residents doorsteps.

-Used needles found here – in playground/sandbox.

-Male-centric sports: take over the entire playfields in this Area.

Need:

NYC Parks

-Needle box.

-Signage that strictly cordons off Children playground areas?

-Create a place for girls to play volleyball with a real net.

NYC DOT Unreliable Lighting seems to be a constant issue?

Current Active Use

-4 schools in the building adjacent to the park.

-Elders hang out here

 

Area: Hester Street/Playground

 

Issues:

-The sexual assault on an elderly woman in the Hester NYC Parks Parkhouse building.

-MKG who live here: People pushed out of the Park land on their doorsteps.

-no volleyball net for girls to play volleyball boys take over the entire park area.

Need:

NYC Parks

-PEP officer stationed here.

-Create a place for girls to play volleyball with a real net.

-Resolve the Sandbox Area

-Needle Box

-Children’s Playground Signage: Children and Caregivers ONLY

NYC DOT Unreliable Lighting seems to be a constant issue?

Current Active Use:

Weekdays and Weekends:

Many elders here, Day: sitting, playing cards, Enjoying the Park

Alliance Gardeners: Clean up days, gardening, brought Playmobile to the area.

Daytime Schools on Hester activate the area.

 

Hester to Canal

Issues:

Lighting

Need: Gardener for area surrounding the Oval (Pam Ito of the Hort wasn’t funded by Council Member to garden here)

Current Active Use

Weekdays and Weekends:

Schools and elders. Ping pong (request to move the table to shaded area), card games, sitting, walking around the oval.

Schools use for sports.

Used to be used for younger teams from the area.

Evening: Dancing in turf oval.

Canal

The Night Market –wonderful creation of activation and safety by Think!Chinatown

 

 

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

 

Capital Improvements, Quality of Life Concerns, Accessibility, Outreach, & Programming

updated 2025

CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS NEEDED:

Return of the Stanton StoreHouse to active community use creating an engaging and safe hub for all who use the park. Underway

1) Programming coordinated by University Settlement in partnership with the Stanton Bldg Task Force, FABnyc, GreenMap, Pratt, NYCHA tenants, Housing for the Deaf, community partners and residents

2) Parks maintains stewardship.

3) Indoors and outdoor activation includes programs in park stewardship, fitness, recreation, ‘green culture’ and education.

4) Highlights:  Daytime workshops, after-school youth programs, evening community meetings and more. 

5) Flexibly equipped with storage for gardening and recreational equipment, emergency communications.

• Repair of the Oval at Canal/Hester Streets. DONE
• South Delancey to Grand construction start date 24-36 months. Design phase.  CB3 Reso here, Updates (older version), estimated timeline here
  • Entryways-Grand Street: Open up for maximum visibility. Remove high brick walls alongside Grand to create maximum visibility from the street. Repair sloping entryway.-Delancey Street: Renovate entryway for wheelchair accessibility. Redo plaza with permeable pavers. Funded, Designed,
  • Hua Mai Bird Sanctuary restore fencing and enlarge (depending on birders wishes)
  • Preserve the legacy plots in this park
  • Preserve/Repair/Upgrade ‘The Pit’ AreaUnclog/repair drainage- southern end of Pit. Lighting: brighter/downward facing. Return benches south of Pit. Eliminate that new resurfacing – too slippery.-A mosaic mural to brighten and engage the Pit’s side walls.-Install in-ground pieces/apertures to attach Volleyball or Tennis net rig requested by girls here.-Preserve the uniquely flexible Pit area – reimagined for even more flexibility.
  • Parking will be removed from Broome Transverse – Parking for Parks workers provided along Forsyth.

• Revised Rivington Playground Renovation See Here

• BRCSenior Center Repairs: Replace (funded) windows. Repair roof drainage 7 years and waiting. Ensure adequate heating during winter months. DONE

Ongoing:

• Judicious tree pruning to provide sight-lines for safety.
• In General with All Parkhouses: Action Needed: Remove cars
• Cameras: the 5^th precinct is asking for cameras to be installed throughout the park. MTA site,
• Garbage Pick-up to Avoid Derelict Look of Park
• Offers of Trauma Counseling for the Community Surrounding the Park
• Tabling in the Park on info to end Violence Against Asians/Against Women/(Against Elders?) VAW organizations
• Kiosks for Local Food Businesses in Broome/Delancey Area (other areas?)
• Broome Street Parkhouse shared site with community organization or move Storehouse to here.
• Conversion of the Hester Street Park House for use as by community.
• Repair, maintain, renovate the Rivington Street DESIGN PHASE and Stanton Street playgrounds.
• Repair of sink holes in SDR Park.
• WiFi in all Park Buildings for use by park-going public.
• Ensure safe and sanitary access for children of sprinkler near Stanton playground
• Low Gate ? around the fountains behind the Stanton Street Building (or another solution to protect the fountains from being used as a restroom).

QUALITY OF LIFE CONCERNS:

• End the use for parking by Park’s Department personnel’s vehicles and Park’s Department trucks in the Broome/Stanton/Hester “emergency parkway streets”. It jeopardizes the safety of Park users, bike users, children and elders, misuses scarce Park recreation space and encourages the parkways to be used for thru traffic.
• While the City works to create more truly low-income housing/supportive housing and to restore dignity for those struggling with homelessness and to make a safer and more sanitary for the neighborhood and for park workers and volunteers: Sara Roosevelt Park (and all parks with sizable unhoused populations)
  • 1) One comfort station per park open 24/7 with two paid security workers
  • 2) One maintenance worker on call per 4 nearby heavily used parks)
  • 3) One mobile shower bus with posted time slots per every 4 nearby heavily used parks 

• Repair and open Broome Street bathrooms. DONE
• Install ‘Pedestrian Crossing’ warning signs for bicyclists with the addition of the two-way bike lane.
• Prevent further saturation alongside the Park of bars and nightclubs.
• Rat abatement using non-poison means whenever possible to protect the wildlife. Along with consistent garbage collection in and around the Park. Being DONE!
• Initiate recycling, water run-off capture, solar powered utilities whenever possible, including lights/charging stations/etc, create green roofs on all park buildings, plant trees in every tree pit and create other tree pits and green areas to provide an explosion of carbon exchange plantings to combat, not just mitigate, the climate crisis. Be a model and educator everywhere possible of sustainable practice and tackling the roots of the climate emergency within our Public Green spaces.

 

ACCESSIBILITY, OUTREACH, AND PROGRAMMING NEEDED:

• Table Tennis and/or nets for girls who want to play volleyball.
• All SRP Park signage in English/Chinese/Spanish (unless time or other constraints)
• Take measures to sustain the diverse, vibrant established communities that reside in the area. Don’t use “revitalization” as a code word for gentrification and the destruction of the existing community.
• Insure the narrow strip of Parkland is not boxed in with out of scale high rises that directly abut and surround the Park putting this precious sunlit strip of greenery in artificial shade. Depriving Park users of much needed access to sunlight.
• Research and implement full recreational and productive uses of the Park to combat problem areas (such as a Greenmarket for the front of the BRC) using local talent that encourages long-time residents/park users without displacement. Encourage local low-income residents with special permitting to provide food carts/kiosks to sell local authentic food in the park.
• Strengthen mutually beneficial relationships with local businesses (letters of support, in-kind donations, monetary donations)
• Encourage new redesign plans of any Park areas undertaken community input with teeth in actual outcomes (not just lip-service) included in all phases and stages of development.
• Preservation of Community run areas of the Park: BRC Senior Center, The Hua Mei Bird Sanctuary, M’Finda Kalunga Community Garden, Forsyth Conservancy, the planting strips on either side of Houston/Stanton, south Delancey plots and other areas traditionally gardened by the community. This insures that the uniqueness of this park is protected and honored and that the local community maintains a strong connection to the maintenance of the park and support for the Parks Department’s efforts.
• Install working water sources throughout the park – in particular the non-existent water sources around Grand Street and South Delancey.
• As often, and whenever possible, encouraging neighborhood stewardship through community involvement to help Parks Manager maintain the Park or continue to maintain other park areas.
• Ongoing activities in the park that encourage local children, parents, park users, local residents, the homeless, seniors to make active and respectful and varied uses of the park. Arts programming, exercise and sports options, volleyball net sitings, etc.
• Ongoing outreach to ensure the community has input into goals (with the resources we have).