Fort Tryon Park

The Daily Plant : Monday, September 17, 2001

NEW YORKERS FIND COMMUNITY IN PARKS

Open and fully operational, New York City’s parks are able to serve in their capacity as meeting places and town squares.

Since the collapse of the World Trade Center Tuesday morning, Union Square Park in Manhattan has been the site of a massive memorial. Sheets of paper are taped to the pavement and passersby are covering them with their thoughts. Drawings, quotations, candles, and journal pages can all be found there. In Brooklyn, New Yorkers are gathered in waterfront parks, especially the Brooklyn Heights Promenade where the view of downtown Manhattan is particularly clear. Union Square Park and the Brooklyn Promenade offer just two examples of how New Yorkers are using parks.

The Central and Borough Recreation offices planned afterschool activities for schoolchildren at two sites in every borough for Thursday, September 13. Mobile rollerskating units were sent out, and at St. John’s Recreation Center in Brooklyn and Liberty Park in Queens, large numbers of children (up to triple the normal amount) were using them. Thursday was also the first day of afterschool programming at St. John’s. Staff assisted children with homework after they came in from skating in the park. Already, the center has planned a Kids Walk Against Violence Day for September 28 when young people will be invited to parade through their neighborhood with homemade signs that express their feelings.

Kids have strung banners graffiti-ed with their thoughts above at least two centers, Hamilton Fish in Manhattan and St. Mary’s in the Bronx. At the North Meadow Recreation Center in Central Park, children were encouraged to draw images of the happy faces that they can picture in their minds. In every borough, Recreation staff led arts and crafts projects, games, and discussion groups. They’ve reported that the basketball courts are particularly crowded.On Staten Island, recreational activity was suspended during a police investigation of the island.

Thanks to Recreation, which is doing a great job involving children in activities through which they may express themselves. As usual, the centers are also serving adults looking for physical release and an affirmation of routine.