Meeting Info CB 3 Man Parks, Recreation, Waterfront, & Resiliency Committee
Thursday, November 14 at 6:30pm -BRC Senior Services Center – 30 Delancey Street (btwn Chrystie & Forsyth Sts)
This meeting is in person and will be streamed at https://youtube.com/live/e98Yr8cL0X8
- Approval of previous month’s minutes
- Parks Manager Update
- EDC: Pier 36 proposed modifications to operating procedures
- Parks: Update on Rivington Playground design
- DDC: ESCR/BMCR Updates
- Vote to adjourn
This is a crucial meeting to revisit and push for changes in the Parks Department’s current design of the Rivington Playground.
Bob Humber, who probably has the fullest picture of what goes on in this area has consistently told us that the current design isn’t workable.
Goals:
Create a realistic and safer playground for vulnerable children and their caregivers.
Beautify and provide seating for visitors, workers, and the general public – but NOT at the expense of children here.
To create a safer and functionally usable space for all park users: (See details below).
This meeting is in person and will be streamed at https://youtube.com/live/e98Yr8cL0X8
The Issues:
We’ve had people selling drugs on the Citi bikes with impunity, Inside the playground and/or on the play equipment: people shooting up, smoking toxic substances, running naked, urinating in broad daylight, having psychotic breaks, an encampment built, dogs set free off-leash (and owners refusing to leave), etc.. And recently, tragically, a young man who had died laying just outside the playground fence.
Others who currently use the playground simply wish a place to sit, eat lunch, take a rest in the shade. They could be fined for being there. They need a space that works for them too.
Specific requests from community input:
1) No second entrance to the playground (too hard to keep track of running children – especially groups like the day care centers who rely on this playground)
2) Create completely separated (from children’s playground by 7′ fences) areas for adults without children.
3) Move the east fence alongside Forsyth Street back about 10 feet to create this adult-only space that will be open to the general public and require no fencing.
4) Put a 7′ foot fence around the entire perimeter of the playground that is ONLY for children and their caregivers with clear signage that states that area is ONLY for children with adult caretakers.
5) Regarding the DOT transverse on Rivington that separates the Playground from the MKGarden:
-Return as Park space to end its use as a illegal thoroughfare for trucks/cars/speeding bikes that endanger children/caregivers who cross from the Playground to the Garden and back – and to create a safer walkway for elders and general public who walk there.
-Install tables chairs for use by public off- center (so no one uses them to climb over fences and allows for emergency vehicles to access in a crisis.
-Move the Citi bike stand to the east side of the park alongside the street (or in the new plaza).
Here is the current NYC Parks design:
https://www.nycgovparks.org/planning-and-building/capital-project-tracker/project/7299