$10M Renovation Of Lower East Side Park Begins

LOWER EAST SIDE, NY — The city "broke ground" at Luther Gulick Park Tuesday morning after a decade-long fight to revitalize the asphalt-filled park.

Work is expected to be complete by September 2020, Department of Parks & Recreation Commissioner Mitchell Silver said.

"With funding and support from all levels from city, from state, and from the federal government, this park will be transformed from mostly asphalt site into a lush green space with something for everyone," Silver said.

For more Lower East Side news, subscribe to Patch's neighborhood newsletter.

The park, named for the "godfather of basketball" Luther Gulick, was first acquired by Parks in 1931.

But by the 1970s, drug dealing had taken over the park, causing the department to remove game tables once filled with Lower East Siders playing chess and checkers. In the late 1990s to early 2000s, a beetle infestation took over the park's trees, forcing the department to destroy much of the greenery.

A decade ago, community activists began organizing to push the department for a change at Luther Gulick Park, located at Delancey and Columbia Sts.

Today, $9.9 million in funds from Mayor Bill de Blasio, City Council, the Borough President's office, and state and federal sources will transform the park from a mostly-asphalt lot blocked off by chain-link fence to a park fitted with lawn area, play areas, a basketball court, bathrooms and sprinklers for children.

"These institutions are really a great equalizer," said Dave Bolotsky, who founded the Friends of Luther Gulick Park, which organized for renovation funds. "These are public spaces that help bring us together."

Construction was supposed to begin in spring 2017, but was delayed and the ultimately project went to bid in January 2018.

Bolotsky said that at times he was frustrated with the delays, but the groundbreaking was a "wonderful day for the community."

"This effort to revitalize this park — we gotta thank Dave," said Councilmember Margaret Chin, one of the councilmembers who helped fund the renovation.

Following a decade of work from Bolotsky's Friends group and city officials, Tuesday's groundbreaking "signifies the culmination of these efforts and sends a message that every New York neighborhood deserves a truly communal space to call their own," Chin said in a statement.

"It was a no brainer that this had to happen," said Chin's predecessor in the City Council, Alan Gerson, recalling when Lower East Siders first came to him for park funds. "People in the community saw something that was not right. It was not right that this area dilapidated the way that it did."

The neighborhood is expected to go through a flux of green space changes in the coming years as the city readies to begin the public review process for a project to protect the east side from sea level rise and storm surge, which will require the East River Park to close during construction.

One longtime neighbor who has been a part of the push to revitalize Luther Gulick said she expects it to be a critical resource for the neighborhood amid the $1.45 billion East River Park project.

"This is going to be one of the few places in the neighborhood that's going to be a substantial area as a [neighborhood] haven," said Adrienne Torres. "If it wasn't for [the Friends of Luther Gulick Park] this never would have happened."

Rendering via the Department of Parks & Recreation