First, we thank the parks department for obtaining a newly painted basketball court. Personally, I think it’s kind of pretty.
BoweryBoogie article. Added: Lo-Down article. More on local Parks, community consultation.
We would have wished we had been asked in the first place about such a big change in a park that has a very active park coalition and a very reachable Community Board. As a courtesy?
We would have wished to have the neighborhood invited and not be, yet again, spectators outside the fence watching a rich corporation using a public park, privately. With a private security guard who apparently flashed a police badge to intimidate a questioner when they asked to enter? And yes we know children were brought in to play and that’s fun for them. Thank you. But somehow it’s not the same as asking a neighborhood if you can have a loud, glaringly lit, generators running, private party in their front yard past the 9pm permit.
Maybe they would have said yes?
It changes everything about how it feels to be asked, to be considered, to be invited.
And maybeParks Department Commissioner Silver should have informed and checked with the Community Board and Park Coalition? Again, plain courtesy, sign of respect, for the decades of labor the neighborhood donated to change this park from a drug infested, pimp -owned place that Park’s Department wouldn’t even set foot in – to a place with pockets of utter beauty and joy?
Oh, and being sent an email two hours before the event doesn’t count.
This week has been a rough one for many of those who don’t feel included in the new America.
This didn’t help.
