There is always something to do at the red-brick park house with its large inviting archways.
Children crowded around the chess and checkerboard when the playground and basketball court stopped raining. They play Ping-Pong, learn to hit the ball in a lumber shop, and watch movies with their friends.
This was over 40 years ago.
“The kids really didn’t have anywhere to play,” says Bob Humber, 86, a youth worker in the 1970s. “They have nowhere else to go. They love that place. “
But that was before city park officials quietly converted the brick building — which had thrived as a community center for the Lower East Side as part of Sara D. Roosevelt Park — into a container house. equipment and supplies. It’s not clear exactly when that happened.
Today, it looks like a fortress with partially assembled windows in a sketchy part of the park, where people sell and use K2 and other illegal drugs. Behind the building, an outdoor area with benches and misting showers to cool off on a summer day lies empty after being temporarily fenced to prevent nefarious activities.
The loss of the park home illustrates the challenges of residents and community groups’ long struggle to save a narrow piece of urban parkland between Manhattan’s Lower East Side and Chinatown. Built by city officials in 1934 as an urban renewal project to provide relief to families in cramped apartments, the park has become a reservoir for crime and problems. the city’s drug problem and the homelessness crisis.
Melissa Aase, CEO of University settlement, a nonprofit organization that runs educational programs and social services. “In a city that is becoming increasingly dense, every welcoming space may be needed to uplift the community.”
K Webster, president of Sara D. Roosevelt Park Confederate Army. “The only way we know to make the park safe again is to actively use it,” she said.
It’s a strategy that has worked for another Manhattan park. An exhaustive list of activities – including movie nights, concerts, dancing, and skating – helped convert Bryant Park Dan Biederman, president of the Bryant Park Corporation, a nonprofit organization, said it has gone from a desolate, crime-ridden piece of land in the 1990s to one of the city’s premier green spaces.
However, city park officials are reluctant to move the park house – which is next to Stanton Street – until they can find an alternative storage place.
“The Stanton Street Building is the primary distribution hub for supplies and supplies that serve parks across Manhattan on a daily basis,” said Megan Moriarty, a spokeswoman for the city’s Parks and Recreation Department. “We are actively working to identify a viable alternative location for this distribution center; any future public use will be identified at a later date. “
The battle for the park house happens when the pandemic hits express inequality of city life. Many poor New Yorkers have limited access to the city’s vast network of more than 1,700 parks, playgrounds and recreational facilities, which has become ever more important to physical health. substance and spirit.
A campaign led by New Yorkers for Parks, an advocacy group, has called for increasing funding for parks to 1% of the city’s budget, or about $1 billion. It grew to $624 million in this year’s budget, with a spokesman for Mayor Eric Adams calling it “A prepayment” on the 1 percent target.
Adam Ganser, executive director of the New Yorkers, said: “The Decline of Sara D. Park.
It serves a working-class area nestled between new high-rent neighborhoods and high-end developments. The median household income around the park is $69,202 annually compared with $89,812 in Manhattan, according to a census analysis of Social discoverya research company.
As long stretches of the park became desolate and dilapidated, many families and the elderly had to stay away. Frances Brown, 40, pushes her son’s stroller in front of shooting drug users. They went to a playground near Stanton’s house a few times last year until they found human excrement there. “Never again,” she said.
Fences to close problem spots took up more space for the park. “It seemed completely counterproductive because the park was made for people – and it destroys that purpose,” said Tom Wolf, an art history professor whose loft overlooks the park. Wolf, an art history professor whose loft overlooks the park.
Fears about the park’s safety flared last year after bicycle delivery man was stabbed to death there. Concerns about anti-Asian violence in the region also increased after a woman was stabbed to death in her apartment facing the park in february by a homeless people.
There have been 51 major crimes — including one murder, nine felony assaults and 12 robberies — reported at Sara D. Roosevelt Park since 2019, according to an analysis of police data. OpenTheBooks.com, a non-profit organization. Last year alone, the park had 17 crimes, ranking 11th among parks in the entire city.
One organization, Audubon New York, suspended plans to plant a garden in the park last year after a program manager raised concerns about the safety of staff and volunteers.
The problems have spilled over into the surrounding blocks. Residents vandalized buildings and got aggressive with store employees and customers. A tavern has found drugs, needles and knives hidden in its plantations.
An acupuncture clinic across from the park was eventually moved to the Union Square area because of safety concerns. Nini Mai, 40 years old, founder of the company said: “It is just no one’s land in many ways.
By the 1980s, however, Sara D. Roosevelt Park had become overrun with drugs, crime, and prostitution. Local residents gathered together to pick up trash and drug needles from playgrounds. They turned a lawn full of weeds into a lush garden.
It worked for a while. Then the park started to slide again. Many residents and business owners are frustrated because they do not receive more help from the park board. Alysha Lewis, former chair of the local community board, said: “It is neglected. “The park department really treats it like a stepchild.”
Sandra Dupal, a bakery owner, in 2017 offered to pay for a kiosk selling bread and snacks so more people could go to the park. She never received an answer from park officials. “The park has untapped potential,” she said.
City park officials say they have made $11.4 million to improve the park since 2005 and that they plan to spend an additional $21 million on projects, including construction. playground again. They worked with other city agencies to bring homeless outreach teams and medical trucks to the area. They said they would also consider the possibility of concessions.
“We are committed to improving and taking care of the many features and amenities of the park for New Yorkers of all ages to enjoy,” said Moriarty.
Only three of the original park houses are still standing. They have public baths, accessible from the outside. The remaining two houses are used for park operations, including a communications center and a substation for park enforcement patrols. Advocates say all buildings should be turned over to the community, but they asked Stanton in advance partly because the area was in poor condition.
Adrian Benepe, a former city parks commissioner, said that park officials have limited options in finding other storage in space-starved Manhattan. “I don’t believe it’s a question of will or money,” he said. “It’s a question of logistics.”
But Ms. Webster and other advocates say it’s a matter of fairness and that the Stanton house should not be used to support other Manhattan parks, including larger ones with more resources.
In recent years, a grassroots campaign has generated many ideas for the house in the park. Community Center. Bicycle repair station. Pool. Student at Pratt . Institute worked on reimagining what it looked like.
Reynaldo Belen, 20, who just graduated from a high school across from the park, says it should be used to bring people together. “That could stop some of the violence in the region,” he said. “You don’t shoot someone you know or see all the time.”
As park officials began moving supplies into the park house, Mr. Humber, a former youth worker, said he was told it was only temporary. He has asked for the house in the park to be returned to the community ever since.
“I have been fighting for this building for so long,” he said. “I hope that I was still alive when they opened it.”
