By Daniel Levin
Statue near an entrance in Thomas Jefferson Park [Credit – Daniel Levin]
A team practicing in the soccer field [Credit – Daniel Levin]
Public parks can often play an integral role in the formation of a community. They provide a space for community events, athletic activities, family fun, and a piece of nature to break up the gloom of an otherwise urban jungle. However, parks are not always utilized to their fullest potential, often due to the way they are structured. It was my goal in East Harlem to observe and map out exactly the way my chosen park was utilized by the local residents. My first visit to Thomas Jefferson Park was Saturday, March 25th at around 11 A.M. As I walked down to 114th from the nearest bus stop, I immediately noticed a soccer team playing in the park.
The park itself is filled with multiple sports fields, including ones for baseball, basketball, handball, and a large swimming pool near one of the entrances. The baseball and basketball fields were almost completely empty, with no more than 5 people in each field at a given time.
Empty baseball field [Credit – Daniel Levin]
Pool closed off by fence with barbed wire [Credit – Daniel Levin]
The pool was an even more depressing site. It was completely enclosed by a large fence with barbed wires and steel chains. No one could enter that area, and it was impossible to say by looking at it whether it had been closed for a few months or a few years. The most populated area of the park was the children’s playground, where there seemed to be 10-15 families at any given time.
My second visit on Wednesday, March 29th at 4 P.M yielded similar results. The soccer team was playing again but most of the sports fields were empty. This time, there seemed to be a greater concentration of older adults towards the back end of the park, near the FDR drive. The most frequent users of this side of the park tended to be dog walkers and joggers, who ran across the walkway that connected the park to the FDR drive. This walkway seemed to be the most consistently utilized space.
Walkway from the park to the FDR drive [Credit – Daniel Levin]
Overall, both times yielded a low turnout of people for such a large park. I believe this to be due in large part to the time of the year that I went, as it was still early into Spring and not yet warm. I imagine that the park is more populated in the summer, but even so this highlights a problem of how the park is structured. The pool, for instance, takes up a big chunk of the park. When it is not being used, the spiked and barbed wire fence that covers it seems hostile. Overall there doesn’t seem to be much space to use during the colder months. One possible remedy for this situation would be to build in an indoor space, one that could serve as a place for athletic activity, especially for kids. However, more visits and research would need to be done to see if such a space could be created and how it could best serve the community around the park.
Map of people in Thomas Jefferson Park on March 25th
Map of people in Thomas Jefferson Park on March 29th
Map of significant features in Thomas Jefferson Park
