“We’re Not Playing” — Community Outcry as Hell’s Kitchen Playground Faces Another Summer Without Basketball

One of Hell’s Kitchen’s few open spaces for children to play in will likely see another summer pass by without its basketball court, and parents and community activists are losing patience.

It’s been six years since scaffolding was erected on a wall bordering Mathews-Palmer Playground (W45th/46th St bw 9th/10th Ave) to fix a building’s crumbling facade and restore its historic mural, featured in a Paul Simon music video . Despite promises to move swiftly, work hasn’t budged since 2018.

The scaffolding, enclosed with netting, blocks a portion of the playground’s basketball court, which is currently missing its hoops and in need of repair. That’s frustrating for Aleta LaFargue, the mother of an 11-year-old who loves to play basketball.

“My kid used to spend a lot of time in the playground area, but he’s older now, he wants to play basketball,” she said. “If he can’t play basketball then it’s pointless.”

Her son used to meet friends from Midtown West elementary school in the park, but in the past several years she has stopped bringing him there.

The building covered in scaffolding, 430 W46th Street, is owned by a Housing Development Fund Corporation (HDFC) cooperative, a city program that allows residents to own their apartments as shareholders for a lower-than-market rate price.

A representative of the HDFC, Nicholas Ciano, did not respond to multiple emails requesting comment. A representative from the Parks Department, which has been acting as an intermediary with the building, told us the work could be completed by “Fall 2024,” with construction expected to start in early July.

David Stuart, president of the HK45/46 Block Association, is beyond ready to see some action from the HDFC, which he says has been negligent in completing repairs.

“The community’s fed up. We’re tired of the kids not having their playground,” Stuart told W42ST. “We want the scaffolding removed, we want the basketball court repaired, and we want it ASAP.”

After sending “dozens, if not hundreds,” of emails to the HDFC and parks department over many years, “we’re done playing,” Stuart said. “I am done being a nice guy. Right now the community is fed up.”

Stuart doesn’t have confidence in the Parks Department’s timeline. He’s received broken promises in the past, such as when Parks told him last year that work would be completed by December 2023.

“Why is this different from the other half dozen times they said that there would be a completion date?” he asked, also noting that “Fall 2024” is “not a completion date, it’s not even a completion window.”

As of Sunday, July 7, work on the building’s facade did not appear to have begun.

In 2020, the City of New York sued the HDFC for allegedly refusing to take responsibility for repairing the wall. “The condition of the wall’s stucco and masonry is in very poor condition, and as a result, debris is falling into the park,” the lawsuit reads.

The city has paid tens of thousands of dollars to maintain the scaffolding. According to the lawsuit, “through January 2020, the City has paid $28,300 for installation and rental of the sidewalk shed, and continues to incur additional rental charges for each month the nuisance remains unabated.” It is unclear whether the city is still paying to maintain the scaffolding.

The HDFC previously told the community that it needed to sell a unit in the building to raise the necessary funds to complete repairs, said Leslie Woodruff, a community advocate and parent who has been working closely with Stuart.

“We were told last year that repairs (to both the building AND court) would be done before the school year ended,” Woodruff said. “While we knew it was going to take a minute for the sponsor unit to sell and the proceeds to funnel into the co-op account, there has been no movement — we are really disappointed and fed up.”

Woodruff and Stuart often host community events in the park. After years of inaction, “why is no one else ready to just topple the scaffolding over?” Woodruff asked, expressing her frustration.

Last summer, a fence around the perimeter of the scaffolding, which has since been removed, gave an electrical shock to two children , sparking safety concerns.

Mathews-Palmer isn’t the only playground in Hell’s Kitchen plagued by unsightly scaffolding. A building bordering Ramon Aponte Park (W47th St bw 8/9th Ave) has been covered for the past five years, and may soon be demolished to make way for a condo building nearly twice its size, in a move some have decried as demolition by neglect .

LaFargue, who grew up in Hell’s Kitchen, said she never used playgrounds in the neighborhood as a child as they were considered too dangerous.

“Being a parent now, having all these playgrounds and being able to use them for what they were meant for, was such a wonderful thing,” she said. Now, with two of them covered in scaffolding, “we’re getting a taste of what it used to be.”

Representatives from the Parks Department are scheduled to provide updates on district parks and answer community questions, including about Mathews-Palmer Playground, at a Community Board 4 meeting this Thursday at 6:30pm.

The post “We’re Not Playing” — Community Outcry as Hell’s Kitchen Playground Faces Another Summer Without Basketball appeared first on W42ST .