City Backtracks On Hell's Kitchen Park Renaming After Outcry

HELL'S KITCHEN, NY — The city has canceled plans to rename Hell's Kitchen Park after a famed Black playwright after neighbors complained that the plan was contributing to the ongoing erasure of the neighborhood's name.

Instead, a not-yet-built plaza across the street will eventually bear the name of Lorraine Hansberry, the playwright known for her 1959 tragedy "A Raisin in the Sun," the Parks Department said Wednesday.

The department said last week that Hansberry would be the new namesake of Hell's Kitchen Park, on 10th Avenue between West 47th and 48th streets — one of 15 green spaces across the five boroughs that the city planned to rename to "honor the Black experience in New York City."

Neighbors, however, reacted angrily to the surprise announcement, telling W42ST that they had received no notice that the 42-year-old-park would be rebranded.

Moreover, they said, the change was part of a trend in which Hell's Kitchen's colorful name has been phased out in favor of more real-estate-friendly terms like Clinton.

On Wednesday, the Parks Department said they had listened to the feedback and would undo the change — a move first reported by W42ST.

"In response to the Hell’s Kitchen community’s concern about what they believe to be broad erasure efforts of the neighborhood’s name and character, we have decided to restore the [name] Hell’s Kitchen Park," a spokesperson said.

Plaza details unveiled

The sites selected for renaming had mostly been picked through suggestions from the public and community leaders. Parks Commissioner Mitchell J. Silver picked the final names and locations, the department said.

The initial renaming appeared to have some resonance in the theater-heavy neighborhood. Hansberry, whose seminal work explored segregation and poverty in Chicago, died from cancer in 1965 at the age of 34.

Still, the playwright's name will one day appear in the neighborhood: a future plaza on the west side of 10th Avenue, between West 48th and 49th streets, will be named Lorraine Hansberry Plaza.

That plaza sits on the so-called "DEP site," a long-vacant plot of land, so named because it is owned by the Department of Environmental Protection. The city plans to build an eight-story building on the lot, including more than 150 affordable apartments and the small plaza on the 10th Avenue side, though Community Board 4 criticized the plans for not being affordable enough.

The eventual plaza will include a circular turf field, tables and umbrellas, benches, trees and planters, according to a schematic plan that the city shared with Patch. It will be managed by the Parks Department once built.

The changed plans were welcomed by neighborhood leaders including the 47-48th Street Block Association President, who told W42ST that the city's reversal was "wonderful news."

Hell's Kitchen Park was a parking lot until the 1960s, when the city purchased it for $400,000 in response to neighborhood demands for more recreation spaces. After delays, the playground opened to the public in 1979 and was cared for by the 47th/48th Street Block Association, who hosted meetings there, according to a Parks Department history.

Related coverage:

• Hell's Kitchen Park Is Renamed For Famed Black Playwright
• Hell's Kitchen Board Says City Betrayed Affordable Housing Pledge