Goals

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

updated December 2022

CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS NEEDED:

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

1) Programming coordinated by University Settlement in partnership with the Stanton Bldg Task Force, community partners and residents

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

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

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

 

• Repair of the Oval at Canal/Hester Streets. DONE
• 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.

• Hua Mai Bird Sanctuary restore fencing and enlarge (depending on birders wishes)
• Permanent Brighter lighting. Downward facing to not disturb neighbors/birdlife – temporary lights are loud hazardous. Necessary. BUT brighter, better lighting must happen asap – this is not a temporary problem.
• 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.

• 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 and Stanton Street playgrounds. IN DESIGN PHASE
• Repair of sink holes in SDR Park.
• WiFi in all Park Buildings for use by park-going public.
• BRC Senior Center Repairs: Replace (funded) windows. Repair roof drainage 7 years and waiting.
• Ensure adequate heating during winter months in Parks buildings.
• 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 SDR Park signage in English/Chinese/Spanish

 

• 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).