The parks committee of an East Village community board has backed a plan to renovate the basketball courts, a kids-only swimming pool, and a beloved ’90s-era outdoor fitness area in Tompkins Square Park. Some miffed park users say the effort goes too far.
Many Tompkins Square regulars, including a handful who told Gothamist their lives revolve around the park’s steel pull-up bars, have panned the renovation plans. In the East Village’s latest preservation fight, more than 2,600 people signed a petition urging the city “not to ‘fix’ what is not broken.”
“ There’s no reason to change this particular fitness area because we love it the way it is,” said Danny Kavadlo, a personal trainer who said he has been training in Tompkins Square Park for more than 15 years.
The parks department presented three different proposals to the community board’s committee on Thursday night. One option left the fitness area undisturbed – a route that park preservationists said would have been a victory.
Much to their dismay, the community board committee agreed with the recommendation of the parks department, which said the entire area should be renovated, including the outdoor gym.
The committee will bring its resolution to the full community board at its next meeting.
The parks department said the new fitness equipment would be safer, accessible to people with disabilities, and that the aging equipment has to be updated anyway. The project has nearly $10 million in funding from the mayor and governor, according to the parks department presentation.
Proponents of keeping the park as is, however, told Gothamist the fight is far from over and they plan to make their voices heard.
“To be clear we are not arguing that nothing ever needs repair,” Salo Coslovsky, an associate professor of urban planning at New York University at the forefront of the preservation fight, said in a statement. “We are arguing that Parks is misrepresenting the status of the park and using repairable problems to justify a much larger, more disruptive reconstruction.”
The plan that the community board committee opted to support includes building a new, in-ground miniature pool for kids with improved infrastructure. The city would put detention basins under the renovated basketball court to improve storm runoff and prevent sewage from flowing into the East River.
The fitness equipment would be replaced with new materials to make it safer and more accessible, according to the parks department. While the original plan proposed eliminating the half basketball court in the area, the committee requested it be preserved.
Jonathan Fodi, an electrical engineer, said he moved to the East Village from Montreal after visiting his cousin who lived in the area. He said he was awestruck when he first saw the park’s community.
“People are doing handstands on the bars. People are hanging. There’s music,” Fodi said. “ There was guys of all different races, ages, doesn’t really matter. I was like, ‘This place is awesome,’ and it’s what made me wanna move here.”
Now, he said, he’s made more friends than he can count at the park.
Lifelong East Village residents rely on the space, too.
Jahmal Kirwan said he grew up just blocks away. He said the park hasn’t just helped him get into shape, it’s also helped stop drinking, stay out of trouble, and connect to his community.
Kirwan said he can’t think of anywhere nearby that would be an adequate replacement during construction, which the parks department said is expected to take 18 months.
“ It forces us to have nowhere to go,” he said. “Back to the block, basically, you know? Back to the trenches.”
At the meeting, representatives from the parks department said they are learning from past mistakes and appreciate the community feedback.
The department said it is speaking with different manufacturers about obtaining higher-quality materials to use for the renovation, as other park improvement projects have yielded complaints.
The department also said that the proposed design would have the same features as the current one, in addition to accessible equipment and layout.
“In order to invest in the care of our parks, we must regularly redesign and rebuild our city’s parks and facilities,” the department’s website reads.
But the park preservationists insist they won’t give up without a fight. Coslovsky said he will be at the next community board meeting with more specific requests, including increasing the accessibility and repairing existing equipment in a way that is minimally disruptive to an “epicenter of wellbeing, affordability, friendship and community.”
Kerwin and Fodi said they are planning a park party to give people a sense of the type of community it fosters.
“There’s a certain energy that these bars have and a certain type of people that it attracts,” Fodi said. “The biggest thing about this place is the people.”