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

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.

I suspect many of us are struggling post election. Might be useful to remember what we will continue to try for:

To build community and model, to the best of our ability, how to stay connected, care about one another, share the resources we have and insist on a more honest, open, fair and inclusive world.

To hold ourselves accountable and hold those who lead us accountable.

To encourage all of us to see ourselves as leaders in the true sense.

To be fierce in pushing back against every single form of oppression that exists without descending into using those same poisonous tactics.

To, even in disagreement, work to create community: we’ll talk and listen until we find common ground.

To continue to steward this park as our part of sustaining our planet.

We will spend these next years creating the hope we long for.

Look back over this website and you will see the efforts of decades of countless community members and generous people from far away. Many not recorded here. The people who began this Coalition were not certain of success: there was little help and a lot of danger.

Last, here are thoughts from just a few of our elders who knew a thing or two about struggle (for those moments of doubt):

“If you are not angry you’re either a stone or to sick to be angry. You should be angry. You must not be bitter. ….bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. It doesn’t do anything to the object of its displeasure. You write it, you paint it you dance it, you march it, you vote it. You talk it. Never stop talking.” – May Angelou

“History, written by power, taught us that we had lost… We did not believe what Power had taught us. We skipped class when they taught conformity and idiocy. We failed modernity. We are united by the imagination, by creativity, by tomorrow. In the past we not only met defeat but also found a desire for justice and the dream of being better. We left skepticism hanging from the hook of big capital and discovered that we could believe, that it was worth believing, that we should believe- in ourselves. Health to you, and don’t forget that flowers, like hope are harvested.”

-Marcos of the Zapatistas

“There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love.” -Washington Irving

‘If you’ve come here to help me, you’re wasting your time. But if you have come here because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.’ -Lilla Watson, Australian Aboriginal Elder

Gloria Steinem: “The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off”.

“To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never, to forget.” – Arundhati Roy

Lincoln at Gettysburg: “We are not enemies”

On Tuesday November 8th a large delivery of rock and pavers for a path were worked into a lovely pathway. 20 young people from Emma Lazarus, along with ‘The Hort” (and a little help from a Millennium High School student) were there to help with mulching and path making. 

Here tis:

From NYPD Community Affairs Bureau

The 43rd Annual Halloween Parade is set to take place on Monday, October 31, 2016 at 7:00 PM.  The parade will begin on Spring Street, continuing north on Sixth Avenue, and will end on West 15th Street at 11:00 PM.  If you plan on attending the parade, using public transportation is highly recommended, as there will be significant traffic delays in the surrounding areas of the parade.  For travel information, click: HERE.

Stop by any of the gardens this Saturday October 15th to lend a hand…!