Photos by Stacie Joy
Updated: You can watch a playback of the CB3 Board meeting on YouTube here. Zach Iscol starts at the 23-minute mark.
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Signs stating "No adults except in the company of a child" — written in multiple languages — were recently posted on the playgrounds along Avenue B and Seventh Street in Tompkins Square Park...
In recent months, some residents have expressed concerns about the migrants waiting for a new shelter assignment outside the former St. Brigid School on Seventh Street and Avenue B. They have been congregating on the SE corner of Tompkins Square Park, including inside the playgrounds. (This past fall, Mayor Adams began limiting adult migrants' stays in shelters to 30 days before they have to leave and reapply at this so-called East Village reticketing site.)
The influx of men standing around has caused some residents to no longer visit the playgrounds with their children. It was also made clear that the men were often unaware that they couldn't be inside the playgrounds.
Making matters worse, the city removed the three portable toilets from Tompkins Square Park on Jan. 9, forcing anyone visiting the 10.5-acre property to figure out where to relieve themselves. (The restrooms in the field house are closed until the fall for renovations.) According to residents, the playgrounds have become popular public toilets, with some equipment serving as cover.
While the signs look official, it's unknown who left them on the playground gates.
The two playgrounds in this park area received a year-long, $2.7 million upgrade, unveiled in October 2019.
Meanwhile, as we reported last week, Zach Iscol, commissioner of the NYC Emergency Management, will appear before Community Board 3 tonight. Per the invite, he "will update the community on the agency's asylum-seeker operations and community engagement efforts within the confines of CB3."
Iscol is expected to speak at 7 p.m. (The meeting starts at 6:30 p.m.) Only CB3 board members can ask questions. (The deadline for residents to submit questions was this past Friday.)
The meeting will be in person at PS 20, 166 Essex St., just south of Houston, and streamed on YouTube here.
35 comments:
I empathize with the parents who relied on these playgrounds as safe spaces for their children to play, explore, and engage with other kids. It's unsettling to see 40 or 50 adult men lingering around a playground, especially men who seem to have little to no awareness of the cultural expectations around them (not to mention the littering, urinating in the park, and other more directly jarring behavior).
Things might be different if these migrants were attempting to integrate into the community in some way, such as organizing park clean-up after they've been there all day or offering to do some community service for the park instead of playing soccer in it all day. But as a parent and taxpayer that is directly funding the $140k/year migrant cost to the city, it is hard not to feel slighted.
Prime example of chaos policy by Adams administration. This could be alleviated by some actual governmental thinking about the issues for the community when there is a large immigrant processing center in the neighborhood. Proper signage and maybe some friendly enforcement (I know, call me a dreamer) by our huge police force. Newer EV residents should also be aware of the fact that the neighborhood has always been where the city puts a lot of social service and how it affects the quality of life.
It's not like these guys are coming from countries that don't have playgrounds and children. They know there are better places and ways to loiter. While I sympathize with the migrant community and I know poor actors are a very small percentage of the overall number, there should be accountability for anti-social behavior. But accountability seems to be virtually extinct in New York City.
Tompkins Square Park and the East Village has been welcoming immigrants for more than 150 years, and the Park is for all. We need to respect each other. The best way to do that it is to communicate and listen to each other. I've engaged these guys. They want to learn. They want to work and become Americans. The City is failing by having them just stand around and wait in line through all kinds of weather. Mayor Adams should support the community, including East Village Loves and Harvey Epstein, that wants to help, instead of pouring tons City money into the coffers of for profit contractors who play the political game (donate money) and provide sub-standard services.
We’ve continued to use the Ave B playgrounds and generally find the men to be friendly. However I’ve also seen men urinating in the bushes beside the playground gates. We have yet to see anything gross in the playgrounds, but I dunno, it’s possible.
Neighbors may not be aware but historically there are several nearby schools that use these playgrounds for their recess. These are schools that either do not have a playground and/or do not have adequate playground space and so classes uses the playgrounds every day. I’m not around at that time so I don’t know how it has affected them.
I support the groups that provide resources.
I think it would be a brilliant idea if after serving a meal, they would provide garbage bags and gloves/brooms/dustpan and ask the men to please clean up meal debris and other garbage in the area that they are packing into.
With all the food debris the pigeons have been more attracted to the area and droppings are far more frequent on all the playground benches than they’ve ever been. The parks Dept rarely does that type of cleaning (of course they do a LOT of other cleaning) unless you get many people to make 311 complaints.
When the weather warms up the sprinklers are on for several months. Seeing as how there not many facilities to wash up in, I do wonder if this will become an issue. It has rarely been an issue in the past.
Does anyone know if the meeting tonight will be available to view after? If not could someone please post notes? I am
Very interested in what information is provided at the Community Board 3 meeting but can’t attend.
Why complaint about the migrants on B when there's a perfectly fine kids playground near Ave A?
Huh? First of all these are all public facilities and all of them should be freely used by families. The way the playgrounds generally divide is with older kids using the playground on Ave A after school, often without supervision. If you look you’ll find that the toddler to 6yo crowd generally congregate at the playground on Ave B with the swings. The equipment is geared towards young kids. And most families don’t want to spend all their time dragging their kids away from the sand pit on Ave A.
Genuinely asking, are most of the men literate in their home language, do you think?
Maybe a dumb/obvious question, but is there some way the TSP library can help with this, or is it already filled daily? At least there are places to sit in the warmth there, and bathrooms.
I pick up books there once a week and there only appear to be a couple of tables with chairs on the main (adults) floor. People seem to truly be doing work in there, laptops, etc.. I think the few rooms are frequently booked with community activities and classes.
I wondered the same at first, but it seems to be a community resource that is already well used.
Why doesn’t the church next door open their doors and use that huge open space with seating for the migrants
The churches are large and mostly empty the majority of the day.
Hey! I've long had an interest in that little nook of Tompkins- I helped plant the pollinator garden there and really appreciate how important those playgrounds are to families with young children. I also help with the distro that takes place on Saturday mornings at 7th/B. We usually clear out 10-15 contractor bags of garbage with the help of parks employees, ave B HORT workers, and asylum seekers that help out despite the language barrier. As soon as we wrap up and leave each week the trash cans immediately overfill and it gets dirty again. I don't see the situation improving so long as these guys don't have work permits and have absolutely nothing to do but hang out in the park all day long. And I can't really fault them for a lack of civic spirit after the city has made them stand on line in the freezing cold day after day. That said I've definitely noticed a change in the past few weeks- guys taking a more proprietary attitude to that little path and being more eager to pitch in with cleanup.
Also, when every library acts as a way station for the city's homeless or for the migrants it isn't really a library anymore. It's a place for men to sit around all day. I used to love working at the library on Mott Street/Seward Park but I had a few uncomfortable situations and I had to stop going. The TSP library was closed for renovations for so long and it should be a safe, clean space for people in the community to work and read and browse, etc. Let the library be the library, and let's find a real solution for the migrant situation.
Curbed has published some good interviews with these migrants.
https://www.curbed.com/article/nyc-migrants-shelter-stories-st-brigid-church-reticketing.html
Does Carlina actually exist in any capacity? Never see her, community thoughts to her office never effect change (it's not us, it's this city agency or that city agency who did this and that without asking!)
" it should be a safe, clean space for people in the community to work and read and browse, etc. "
I don't see why it shouldn't be a safe, clean place for migrants to pass time quietly, also! I hope you are not implying that having migrants there somehow would make it less safe or less clean. However, it sounds like people are saying that capacity/facilities constraints may not leave much room for them, which is a fair answer to my question.
Politely yes , Sarah. A large number of rational people would absolutely contend that sheltering homeless, migrant refugees (and they number in the hundreds in our neighborhood) throughout the day in our libraries would absolutely make them less safe amoung other things
I don't understand the connection between the illegal immigrants hanging out in playgrounds and the removal of the porta potties.
RECAP
The commissioner spoke about migration in general and most of his & the community board’s concerns centered around helping the migrants, the lack of a federal response, and the need for a better immigration & asylum system at the border. Very little addressed conditions outside St. Brigid’s or in the park.
Regarding Conditions Outside St. Brigid’s:
1. Commissioner said they had added more restrooms to the church’s parking lot. But no one challenge him that migrants are only allowed to use them once when/if their number is called. But they are outside the center 8-12 hours a days for multiple days.
2. Folks asked about the children’s playgrounds at 7th & B regarding the large number of migrants loitering there. Commissioner said their response was to hang signs telling migrants not to enter the actual playground.
3. Folks asked about indoor waiting areas for when there is snow, rain or cold weather. Or where folks could sleep at night? The closest warming center run by the city is on 23rd street
4. Commissioner stated 2,000-5,000 migrants arrive in NYC each week — sometimes more. About 300 re-tickets are issued for St. Brigid’s at a time. That could be once in the morning and once in the afternoon
5. Community Board Member stated some folks are waiting outside for multiple days, nowhere to sleep at night and some where there for up to 2 weeks before their ticket was called.
That’s all I recalled. Anything more to add…
I am deeply concerned as a long term community resident because the influx of migrants seems to be greater each passing day. Yes, I have seen a few urinate in open public. Not great, but when mother nature calls, you do what you have to do. The area is constantly littered with many blocking access to that side of the park. And yes, very few seem to respect the neighborhood by remaining peaceful and calm. While they are certainly entitled to benefits as asylum seekers, neighbors and business owners alike are also entitled to safety, cleanliness, and peace of mind, which I am sure other commenters on here will now vilify me as an apathetic, insensitive jerk. The blame primarily lies with our incompetent Mayor Adams along with the Biden administration for permitting this to happen. For the record, I am a progressive democrat with an open heart and open mind, but this entire situation is untenable. And I am afraid nothing will be done to resolve it.
Thanks RECAP for those points. It appears, at least for now that it is viewable at this link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=_q2THHV4OWs
Thank you for the recap, 8:43...
Thank you for sharing this! Can I ask, has your or any other group providing meals considered moving the tables further down 7th st rather than 7th & B corner? Put signs up
In the spots where meals are served with day/time. If people are here to wait for re-ticketing services then that is at st brigid’s. But if not, and they still want to be at the park for camaraderie, there’s no need to be glued precisely to that corner. If they’re looking for donated items, there’s a wonderful warming center at Earth Church nearby M-F that provides donated clothing and other goods for men.
It doesn’t sound like the city has any intention to move this site, and now that there are several set times when neighbors offer meals and goods I hope we can work on additional ways to make that one particular corner of the park less overwhelmed.
With my kid we tend to get some space trying to pass through but alone it’s not same. For example half of the skate park is frequently empty; it would be a good place for soccer rather than blocking the pathway at 7th & B.
Oh, this is a good read for all EVers. Excellent piece. I’ll have extra appreciation for my bed tonight. Thank you for the link.
Also, librarians are librarians. They are there to help people find books, to facilitate literary events, aid in research, etc. They did not take their jobs with the expectation that they would have to wrangle hundreds of migrant men day after day, many of whom they can't eve
communicate with. No one is saying these men don't deserve help; they do. But there are other people whose needs/comfort/safety, must also be considered as well. This is a crap situation all around, but community members are concerned about quality of life in our neighborhood, and have every right to be.
Now if the city would just try to keep people from running their dogs in the Sauer Park playground I would consider that progress. Migrants are easy to force out while Karen dog owners would be a challenge.
Thank you for posting the link to the recording because I may have to watch the meeting again to see what I missed the first time. My takeaway is that the commissioner is very well-spoken and made an effort to show up and address all the questions put to him. However, in the end, there was no new information and no plan for moving forward. He basically said "we're doing the best we can" which I understand and sympathize with, but the Mayor and his administration have not (publicly) presented a step-by-step plan for dealing with this situation. Taking it day by day, relying on the kindness of residents, is unsustainable and does not solve the problem in the long term.
One thing that bothered me about the commissioner's comments at the CB3 meeting is he kept saying migrants who disappear from the reticketing line or the system are "figuring it out" and taking care of themselves. He implied these are success stories which I do not believe. The City has an article today on the furniture store in Queens that was found to be housing 70 men who had given up on the "system" and therefore illegally took shelter in the basement of a commercial space. The owner of that store was just trying to help, but now he's in trouble. What ever we're doing now is not working.
Feb 27 @1:26 PM
Not only is the church large and empty, but it has a basement where some time ago the pastor at that time would set up cots overnight for homeless people. Not suggesting people should stay there, but it could provide shelter during cold days. And St. Brigid's school has bathrooms. I realize making those available to waiting migrants would require some logistical help, but the city should be able to figure that out. The school also has a cafeteria, which could at least be used as a staging area for those volunteer groups who are supplying food.
Where in the F is Mayor Adams? Has anyone seen this incompetent clown hold a press conference on or near 7th and B to oh I don't know perhaps address questions and concerns from law abiding, tax paying citizens? He likes to talk the talk, but no action is ever taken. The migrants are being pulled like taffy in accessing housing vouchers and meal tickets against winter weather. Some must feel hopeless as they were promised opportunities and shelter. Neighbors such as myself are not fond of what is happening to our hood, especially Tompkins Park. It's a big mess and no one is willing or able to clean it up.
You don't have to be Nostradamus to know what NYC, the mayor, governor and City Council are going to do with this issue; act like it's not happening while campaigning for the next elections.
I'd love for them to move the tables, that's a frequent topic of conversation and I don't know why it hasn't happened yet. There's some organizational inertia since no one is really "in charge"-- volunteers know to come to that spot and keep doing so each week.
Earth Church has been involved with the Saturday distros, providing tables etc.
Sarah,
Respectfully, it sounds like you are not familiar with the library?
Perhaps you are fortunate to have other resources.
A library is essential to the community, especially those not yet forced out by gentrification.
Residents deserve to have a library - the purpose of a library is not a hang-out space for homeless.
The library's bathroom is closed.
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