From Canal to Houston.
Thank you Herman for the suggestions about parking along Forsyth Street!
and our intrepid SRPCC Gardener: The Lorax
Broken fence to the Hua Mei Garden
Thanks to the all the workers involved and the MTA’s Katerina Patouri and EECruz’s Michael Quasarano we have a finished Plaza. And a diligent neighborhood.
It was a long wait and it looks great!
And we can fix it!! See Mayor Adam’s and NYC Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue Commitment and Make Space for Girls Studies (below)
Just today: a brand-new CityParks Soccer program this summer for girls ages 13-16. The program will take place in all nine of our usual soccer locations, with female coaches offering a supportive environment for girls of all skill levels to make friends, build self esteem, and discover a new sport for life! This program is made possible thanks to support from Nike.
Sharing works better for everyone!!
What’s wrong with this picture?
Girls try to play volleyball in a corner of the play area available. Without a volleyball net.
Boys take over most of the play spaces
and 
Girls:
but finally ‘encroach’ on the “boys space”!
Parks and women and girls in NYC
Mayor Adams Unveils $43 Million Plan to Lead on Gender Equity, Lays Ambitious Goal to Make NYC Most Women-Forward City in U.S.
January 25, 2024
“With this plan, Mayor Adams is building on the administration’s commitment to addressing gender disparities and supporting women in New York City,” said New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (NYC Parks) Commissioner Sue Donoghue. “Advancing gender equity means setting an example for a fair future and creating resources that improve equity and access in the workforce. This action plan will make New York City a beacon for women’s advancement and will further our work at NYC Parks in providing an inclusive and supportive environment for women in our parks system.”
Canal to Hester
Large oval turf field used for soccer and play and picnics with running track. Gathering place for elders in the neighborhood.
Plantings under seasoned local gardener Pam Ito working with The Hort.
RestoreNYC and bKind and the Sara Roosevelt Park Community Coalition volunteers!
“Sisterhood of the Unstoppable”
Partners: NYC Parks Department‘s Jamil Phillips, Ju-Wan Winslow, Partnership for Parks Ashley Kuenneke, PEP J.P.Kane Lee, and the NYC Park workers clean up crew and Larissa of the Greenbelt Native Plants Nursery, SRPCC Gardeners, Sally Han and volunteers of Restore NYC volunteers, Lisa Mehos of bKind (trauma yoga healing work and more). Kate Fitzgerald SRPCC advisor and M’Finda Kalunga Community Garden , Kim Fong’s BRC for bleach and bathroom access.
Freedom Garden for Survivors of Human Trafficking.
The Project: Building a Freedom Garden for survivors of human trafficking..
-Volunteers (not survivors) will plant a flower for each victim of trafficking (statistics below).
-Some volunteers would work on nearby tree beds to remove Belgian blocks where they are strangling those trees and use those blocks to delineate flower beds (these help both Park workers to know where those are and has helped visitors not walk into beds).
Date: Friday June 7th. (Thursday June 6th- cancelled due to thunderstorm)
Total 2 days: Total Crew: 22
Times: Hours per day: 9am-12pm Crew of 11 and 1pm-4pm Crew of 11
Who:
Volunteers from RestoreNYC and SRPCC volunteers and bKind
Where:
The former Audubon NY plot in front of the BRC -Chrystie side.
(After we, the experienced gardeners, weed the area and sweep for needles, trash, etc.).
Before
During: These two crews did the work that would have taken us months to finish!
Collected a LOT of trash!
and this Catbird who eagerly investigated all our work!
After:
Tools (trowels/pointed shovels/gloves/ grabbers/garbage bags, etc). Partnerships for Parks
Soil, Flowers, Mulch – Bronx Greenbelt Nursery, Partnerships forParks delivered by Jamil Phillips Park Manager, and some purchased and transported from Union Square with funds from RestoreNYC.
Mulch – Jamil Phillips
Small indigenous flowers – K
Backstory:
Sara Roosevelt Park, on Forsyth Street here in the late 70’s until 1990 was lined with young women who were addicted/forced into the sex industry.
We could never offer much to these women – it was too dangerous for them (and us).
Now we think we can do something to acknowledge their existence as a community.
We are also home to homeless women and men, we have two migrant shelters alongside this park and one a block away, Chinatown has a large immigrant population – all populations vulnerable to coercion into human trafficking.
Statistics:
“New York City is a gateway and one of the largest destinations for trafficked women in the country. Right now in every borough, women are being forced into prostitution.”
Statistics:
94% of sex trafficking victims are women
64% of sex trafficked victims are Black or Latina women
60% of sex trafficked youth have been in foster care at some point in their lives
42% of Restore sex trafficked victims named “immigration status” as the reason they feel unsafe in the U.S.
64% of sex trafficked victims are experiencing homelessness when they were recruited into a trafficking situation
Future:
We will ask survivors to bring their own messages written on small stones (a project run by bKind) to ‘plant’ them in this area. They would create the stone messages in a safe space. It would be ’their garden’.
Coming Up:
We heard from a committed group of those who are working with our neighbors to Bridge the Needs of the Homeless and Those Facing Housing Instability
The Stanton CSA is in full swing as Farmer Ted arrives at the gates of the M’Finda Garden!
Sign up next year!
Bringing Chickens (as Bob inspects)!
Somewhere in Sara Roosevelt Park
Tony and the Hua Mei Bird Sanctuary (his Hibiscus survived winter!)
de Britto:
M’Finda Kalunga Garden
Earth Day
Our newest – it will take a while to see what happens here!
Despite all the efforts of our Park workers, Park Manager Jamil Phillips, Ju-Wan, Parks staff, PEP, and our Volunteer Gardeners, we continue to see massive garbage pile ups, homeless encampments with our desperate neighbors (those in the encampments tend to be respectful of the plots that gardeners work hard on), drug sales, discarded needles, using garden plots as latrines, and general misuse, etc.
We know that demonizing our communities – whoever we are – only serves to divide and conquer to prevent a way forward.
We need: Housing, sufficient services, ending violence from any quarter, funding our daycares, ensuring healthcare for all, real mental health assistance – not more drugs, and a strong,
AND
a vibrant Parks department workforce that we commit to as they commit to us.
Fight for Park funding HERE!!
AFTER and BEFORE pictures below:
This is the AFTER picture.
And this:
This is BEFORE:
