MARCUS GARVEY PARK CORNER: PLEASENT BUT NOT PERFECT

Marcus Garvey Park is among the largest public parks in East Harlem with amenities including three playgrounds, an outdoor pool, a recreation center, an amphitheater, a fire watchtower on top of a rock platform named the Acropolis. However a chain is only as good as its weakest link, in this case a park is only as good as its barest area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the corner of Madison Avenue and 124^th street, across the street from medical facilities, a pharmacy, a community garden, and apartments, is located one of three playgrounds available at Marcus Garvey Park in East Harlem and an open field with only a sidelined set of public art pictured above. I drew observations from my field of vision that extended as far as the area on the annotated map below. The volume of greenery is best depicted in the aerial shot of the park above. However, the trees in the photograph were all bare at the time of my observation because it is still early spring.

 

My observations all took place on Wednesday, March 29^th between the hours of 13:00 to 14:00 and from 18:00 to 18:50. The first session was sunny with 60˚F weather and the second session was at sunset with windy conditions and a sharp decline in temperature to 51˚F. Before I managed to count any benches or playground equipment on my first visit, I noticed the people who were occupying the area. Both during the 13:00 and 18:00 session people who sat on benches tended to also sit on the edges of the park and those who did not sit were mainly walking dogs, strolling, or cutting through to exit elsewhere in the park. By the end of the evening session the total dog count was 21, people strolling leisurely: 45, and people walking straight from one entrance to another: 17.

 

During the 13:00 session a large group of elementary school students were brought into the playground and field by their teachers. From observing the teachers’ relatively eased behaviour in watching over the children in a sprawled-out area, I inferred this form of outing was not uncommon. It was a good use of the space because it was otherwise desolate when I first arrived. The classes began to leave around 13:40 and parents with younger children entered. When I returned for my 18:00 session the playground was filled with more elementary school students of varying ages; this time accompanied by parents or guardians.

Although the playground was empty when I first began my observations at 13:00, there were two strollers with infants and their mothers talking and sitting on a bench by the playground. Nearby were two clusters of people sitting and standing around benches laughing and conversing. One of the clusters was closer to the park entrance and consisted of 6 men roughly between the ages of 45 to 60 years. Four of the men were sitting on two benches, one was standing, and another was sitting on a small stool he later took with him when he left. Similarly, the other cluster had some people standing and others standing. Although there were many benches for everyone to sit down, they would not have been able to talk to each other.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The site was functioning well as a park and playground; however, it is not fitting all the major needs of the people who frequent the park for extended periods of time. The people who spend the most time at this park are children on the playground and seniors chatting on benches. I think this park could benefit from removing equipment children consistently stay away from such as monkey bars and placing more favorites like slides and towers. Adding tables, wither with chess boards or just plain ones, with extra seats like at Kissena Park in Flushing, Queens could also be beneficial because it would allow for people to sit together rather than have them stand, bring their own seat, or just not go to the park altogether.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another problem at this park was its cleanliness. During my time at the park a NYC Parks sanitation truck drove by on the limited pedestrian paths, and a four-man cleaning staff passed by with brooms and a plastic dumpster; however, no trash was picked up by either despite the fact there were plenty of paper cups by benches, plastic bags flying around, and a broken glass bottle. The only items picked up by the four-man crew were a few pieces of dirty clothes on a bench that had been lying there unguarded or claimed since before I entered the park. I think the reason there is so many small pieces of litter in the park is not just because the sanitation crew is inefficient but there is also an insufficient number of trash and recycling bins. In this entire area, there were only two trash bins and one recycling bin. Not only were theses the only bins in the area, they were also far from each other and areas deeper in the park. The litter was mainly concentrated in the areas where there were no bins. Adding bins and becoming stricter with sanitation workers in the area can help reduce the litter in this park. Ultimately, this park as the potential to be a great park for its community, its problems are not extensive and the possible solutions are relatively simple.

By Samantha Nicole Ortega Aguilar