Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy
The Save Tompkins Square Park Fitness organizers (from left):
Melody Knight-Brown, Jahmal Kirwan, Thea Rae and Rob Hollander.
A two-day community meetup supporting the future of the bars and courts in Tompkins Square Park continues today (Sunday) from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Organized by Save Tompkins Square Park, the gathering invites people of all ages and abilities to stop by, work out, play basketball, dance or simply meet others who use the recreation area.
The event comes ahead of an important vote on the park's proposed $9.93 million renovation.
As we reported last week, Community Board 3's Parks, Recreation, Waterfront, & Resiliency Committee voted on Oct. 15 to recommend the most extensive of three renovation options presented by the Parks Department.
The proposal calls for replacing the existing mini-pool with a new in-ground pool, renovating the basketball courts, replacing the fitness equipment and resurfacing the recreation area. Construction is expected to take approximately 18 months.
While Parks officials say they've revised the plans to address concerns about the replacement fitness equipment, some longtime users continue to push for repairs rather than a wholesale reconstruction.
They're also concerned about losing access to the popular recreation area during construction.
The committee's recommendation is not final.
The full Community Board 3 will consider the proposal on Tuesday, Oct. 27, at 6:30 p.m. at P.S. 20, 166 Essex St. The meeting is open to the public, with a Zoom option available. Residents who wish to speak during the public session can register online by 3 p.m. Tuesday or sign up in person between 6 and 6:30 p.m. Speakers are limited to two minutes each, with four speakers permitted on each side of an issue, per CB3 officials.
Organizers of today's gathering encourage residents to attend and share their views.
11 comments:
Anyone who doesn’t see the value of this area should spend an hour there on an afternoon in the next week. You might even make friends
The 18 months is a joke. It's all about the Park Dept. not being able to get a job done. The jobs should be separated. 1 month for each area except the pool because it's a more extensive job. The delays are about the contractors hired. They are not professional enough to get a job done. The idea of is for the Parks dept. to provide service. There are people who depend on the exercise area and court. Part is affordability and part is for community comoradery. The community needs a better solution than 18 months.We should demand a more sensitive solution from our community board.
nobody doubts value. it is about not kicking can down road for needed repairs and making it accessible to share value with all.
18 months in park years—translates into three or even five years—I wish I was kiddibg.
We already lost the track (and the fields) for an extra year because of mismanagement and the mayor's office not caring. Let's not lose all of our neighborhood recreational areas at the same time!
$18 million for a mini pool and some new exercise equipment that people don’t even want? That’s crazy. I bet these contractors live in multi million dollar homes
The overall project has a $9.93 million budget, including $6.1 million from Gov. Kathy Hochul's NY SWIMS grant program that she announced two years ago and $3.83 million in city funding.
Today it was filled after school with kids getting outside and playing games. Is this really happening?
If it ain't broken, it doesn't need to be "fixed" - this is a plan to change demographics, not to make a necessary "improvement" that NOBODY WANTS.
Speaking of "fixing", how about that brand new multi-million dollar bathroom "fix" that took YEARS that is now "out of order?
What happened at yesterday’s CB3 meeting? Did the board vote NO?
It's going back to a committee vote with new presentations next month ... then a return to the full Board in late November. We'll have more about it later...
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