GREENING CONCRETE
GRAYING NEW YORK
BY MARCIA EPSTEIN
The sidewalk on West 97th Street between Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues is the size of five average city sidewalks. There is an ongoing battle between a group called Friends of Stryker Park and The West 97th Street Community Improvement Group over how to make use of that largely empty space. Friends of Stryker Park, established in 2012, wants to make 97th Street a safe and enjoyable public space.
They have met with local residents, businesses owners and institutions to solicit ideas about making the now empty block a neighborhood-friendly place of greenery and activities. They want to see flowers growing on the plaza and not trash. The group proposes only minor enhancements to the plaza that would not involve major construction. Every volunteer event has drawn many local people who ask why it’s taking so long to move forward with improvement on the block. I live right across the street from the proposed plaza, and I can’t see any drawbacks to using the space in a more productive way. It’s a large area with a huge potential. Right now, nothing is there but a few benches. Why not use it to beautify the community and provide activities for its people?
Well, here’s what those opposed say. The West 97th Street Community Improvement Group asks the community and the organizations involved in possible support of Friends of Stryker Park not to fund any plaza on that block. The West 97th Street Community Improvement Group is a coalition of residents in the Park West Tenants Association, the Westgate Tenants Association and the Westview Neighbors Tenants Association. They claim that Friends of Stryker Park is an outside group who describe this block as underutilized and desolate (It is!). The group says that the plaza would make the street more crowded, dangerous and unhealthy (how and why, I ask?). They also say that since there will soon be three schools and possibly a large nursing home on the block, the children in these schools need the sidewalk for play, have fire drills and other activities (Why? They have playgrounds).
The group thinks that Stryker Park (really just potted plants, chairs, umbrellas and weekend activities) would attract more rats and would add to the traffic problems we already contend with. The West 97th Street Community Improvement Group claims that it will examine ways to enhance and beautify the block (I haven’t seen anything yet).
Friends of Stryker Park dispute most of these claims. They say that their message aligns with The West 97th Street Community Improvement Group in many ways and that they share the same concerns. The Friends group is frustrated that their motives are called into question and puzzled to have met with opposition. They’ve asked to meet with the community group for over a year and haven’t been able to do so. They say that they are not outsiders; the founders and team members live within a few blocks of the plaza. All they want, they say, is the betterment of the neighborhood. They are all volunteers and not out for any sort of profit or gain except to develop the huge plaza in a way beneficial to the community. The plaza is empty and under-utilized. I know this, as I walk it almost every day.
I can’t see a downside to using it as a neighborhood gathering place. Stryker Park proposes only minor enhancements to the plaza, not major construction. Right now, the plaza is little more than a gathering place for pigeons and garbage. A caveat: I am not in the “in group” and might have missed something essential. However, I’ve been to some of their events and have found them lively and fun. I’ve enjoyed the potted plants and the tables with umbrellas. I simply don’t understand the opposition to something that would turn an under-utilized space into a community gathering spot with flowers growing in the tree beds. New York doesn’t have many open spaces like the five-sidewalk wide block of 97th Street. I’m for anything that would make it pleasant for me and my neighbors.