News

Thank you to Partnerships for Parks for hosting this meet-and-greet event at the Arsenal on 5th Avenue.  Good to hear from our umbrella organization City Parks Foundation ED Heather Lubov and Partnerships for Parks Director Sabina Saragoussi and our own local Coordinator Rene Cuenca!

Wonderful to meet many new Parkies as well as (some of us very) old ones!

Great to meet, in person, both our new Deputy Parks Commissioner Iris Rodriguez-Rosa (who understands what working in some of our struggling parks means) and to our new Manhattan Parks Commissioner Anthony Perez (who has already done a LOT of homework as he comes into this job).

We already appreciate their enthusiasm, fresh perspectives and open joy in the job, the people and the parks.

Dep Parks Commish Rodriquez-Rosa, SaraRPCC: VP Debra Jeffreys-Glass, Pres K Webster

Manhattan Parks Commish Anthony Perez (not from last evening – no photo came out at the party!)

Essentially Sector B is Sara Roosevelt Park and two or three (East/West) streets beyond it.

Find out more here (including a map)

With appreciation to Farmer Ted, The Stanton Community Supported Agriculture or CSA and the M’Finda Gardener Chicken Caregivers.

From Debra Jeffreys-Glass VP Sara Roosevelt Park Community Coalition

We will plant more bulbs and work on getting a water source here!

Nice to have a visit with “Uncle” before the end of summer.

And.. a big Thank you to our stalwart crew and the ROAR Festival!!

And..

Work to be done to remove broken low-brick wall that invites all kinds of misuse!

Build a Block 5^th Pct meetings Now in person. Wednesday at 6:30pm November 16, 2022

Call for location (212) 334-0711

Some of our local officers have left for promotions. We wish them well but will miss the work they have done and their hard won knowledge about this neighborhood and its people.

Local policing can make an area much safer – they know the people and can act with that knowledge.

Good luck Officers Bozzo, and Urena and now Sgt Prado. Best of luck!

and glad to have PO Tsering Dhundup and PO Jasmin Mia!

Sign the Petition to Preserve The Pit with upgrades and repairs!

Sign HERE

Thanks “Doc” for keeping track of the Park. And thank you neighbors and parkgoers!

and remember to PlayFair for Parks!

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.”

Op-Ed | Local communities have been fighting for our parks — it’s time for the city to help (amNY, September 22, 2022)

“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.”

Info below:

The Stanton Building Task Force was formed by the Sara D Roosevelt Park Coalition, University Settlement, Green Map System, FABnyc, and Keena Suh’s Pratt School of Design Students to return this Park building to the community’s use.

The parkhouse, built for the public in 1934, was boarded up during the City’s financial crisis of the 1970s. During the 1980’s, after neighborhood volunteers, the 5th Precinct police and local non-profits reclaimed the park from violence, murder, and drug and sex traffickers, it became storage for all of Manhattan’s parks.  Promises from the Parks Department of its return for public use date back to 1982.

It’s time to return it.

With deep appreciation for this document to Wendy Brawer and Green Map System