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

From Jane (Co-Chair of M’Finda Kalunga Garden):

“What a fantastic day in the garden!  Thanks to the amazing Lauren and Kevin for getting it all organized, and thanks to all the superhelpers – Bob, Bud, Ted, Lara, Lauren’s and Kevin’s friends on the bean bag toss.

Oriol – amazing superhelper and king of the zombie popcorn hands!

And so nice to see so many gardeners working on the garden, especially nice to see Pete!  

Anyone with photos please send to Ted [more photos will be posted here]

Happy Halloween!!

Jane”

We were stakeholders who line the perimeter of the park, not-for-profits with a long history in the Coalition, partners with particular expertise for the park, tenant associations, sport clubs, Schools, health facilities, small businesses, arts and cultural institutions, parks organizations, garden stewards, etc. We spoke in four key languages: Spanish, Chinese, English and sign. We were renters, owners, and homeless. We were two to sixteen to eighty! We talked and listened and learned and argued our thinking. We met to discuss rats, garbage, homelessness, youth, elders, safety, sports, usage of the park, returning Stanton Street building to the community, gardening, and stewardship of spaces. We came up with solutions for some problems, scratched our heads at others. Out of this we have two Task Forces that are meeting or will meet. (leave a comment here with your email if we want more information or  leave your email/contact information at the desk at 30 Delancey Street). We are a completely volunteer organization since 1982. Join us if you want to help out or join some of the many groups that are stewarding Sara Roosevelt  Park spaces.

Thank you to everyone (too many to name) who made the evening possible. Funding by Partnerships for Parks Capacity Grant!

Enjoy the photos of the evening – we’ll post our findings later!

photos by Lee Elson, Wendy Brawer, K Webster, Peter Gee

From Vassar College’s digital window:

Thanks to Jenifer and Bud and Ted (and others) for the lively Ladybug release day.

and to Jose for redesigning and re-bricking the turtle pond area. Lovely.

FYI:

With hard work, skills and resources (including a lunch from Katz’s Deli!) Temple Emanu-El volunteers showed up in force today. Citizens Committee for New York City with Lori and Emily provided strong hands and organizing skills.

Teens and parents worked along the sides of the park and in Elizabeth Hubbard Garden and M’Finda Kalunga Garden as well as in The BRC Senior Garden Patio. The young women and women’s group worked with Lori on the patio. They built three enormous garden tables and repotted the plantings! The young men went Tom (new volunteer and friend of Laura and Kevin) installed the hose stanchion, dug a trench for the new hose line and worked on tree pits. And a large group painted almost every bench in the garden (all in sore need of paint)! One group worked up front lining and widening the pathways in Elizabeth Hubbard and planting bulbs for the spring! The garden was swept and cleared areas of debris.

It was a good day. One family has pledged to help Bob Humber (Coordinator of Elizabeth Hubbard) maintain and continue to build that garden.

Bob, K, Chris, Kate, Carol, Lauren, Kevin, Tom, and Joe were the gardeners (and friends of gardeners) who helped out supervising and working.

Thanks to all. Enjoy the pictures!

Sent by Joyce Mendelsohn of Friends of the Lower East Side:

A history of housing proposals between 1930 and 1933, including a radically modern one made by architects Howe and Lescaze

Lower East Side Siedlung (settlement) – By Joanna Merwood–Salisbury

Merwood–Salisbury: “When Sara D. Roosevelt Park opened in September 1934 it …represented a decisive act on the part of new Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia to distance himself from his predecessor, Mayor James J. Walker, and to usher in a new era of civic responsibility in city planning….intended, not for a park, but for social housing.”

“…The land in question had been acquired by the city only a few months before the stock market crash of 1929, at greatly inflated cost. After the existing tenement buildings were demolished in 1930 the site became a barren wasteland of demolition rubble, a “Hooverville” of shanty houses and bread lines…”

With clarification from Joyce Mendelsohn: