Shorter fences for Sauer Park despite gripes
BY GABE HERMAN
The Parks Department will not be
lowering the fence height at the
East Village’s Joseph C. Sauer
Park after the community pushed back
against the plan, which is part of upcoming
renovations.
The decision was announced Oct. 18
by Assembly Member Harvey Epstein
and Councilwoman Carlina Rivera,
and a Parks Department spokesperson
confi rmed it to The Villager.
A $4 million renovation project is set
to begin later this month at the park,
which is on East 12th Street between
Avenues A and B. New play equipment
will be installed, along with swings,
synthetic turf, water play, seating, tables,
lighting and plantings, according
to Parks.
The plan also called for the park’s
perimeter fence to be lowered from 8
feet tall to 4 feet tall, which displeased
many local residents. An online petition,
which received over 300 signatures,
said the shorter fence would
make the park “less secure and an unsafe
place for children to use.”
The petition page added that the
park’s fence is its only means of security
at night. The cause was backed by Epstein,
Rivera and Community Board 3.
The city Parks Department will press forward with a renovation plan for Sauer Park that includes shorter
perimeter fences.
“In response to the community’s
expressed concerns,” a Parks spokesperson
told The Villager, “NYC Parks
Commissioner Mitchell Silver visited
Joseph C. Sauer Park to evaluate
the conditions and decided to keep
the park’s existing fence. These decisions
are made on a case-by-case
basis. We prioritize working closely
with residents, community boards,
and partner organizations to develop
mutually acceptable design plans for
park renovations.”
“We are proud to stand with the
community and parks advocates who
persisted in asking that the Parks Department
recognize the safety needs at
Joseph Sauer Playground,” said Epstein
and Rivera. “The voices of New Yorkers
who use local parks every day must be
PHOTO BY GABE HERMAN
heard when we decide how our capital
dollars are spent, and we want to thank
Commissioner Mitchell Silver and the
Parks team for listening and addressing
those concerns in this instance.”
The renovation project is part of
Mayor de Blasio’s Community Parks
Initiative. Construction at Sauer
Park is scheduled to be completed in
October 2020.
Probe continues into fatal LES synagogue collapse
BY TODD MAISEL
Inspectors are still looking into the
cause of a major collapse at an historic
Lower East Side synagogue on
Monday morning that killed one construction
worker and injured another.
The workers were rushed to NewYork
Presbyterian Downtown Hospital.
One of the workers died shortly after
arrival, and the other was treated for
minor injuries, fi re offi cials said.
The collapse occurred just after 10
a.m. on Oct. 21 when the workers were
in the process of demolishing Beth
Hamedrash Hagodol at 60 Norfolk St.,
a former Orthodox Jewish synagogue
was more than 120 years old.
The synagogue had fallen into disrepair
as many of the Orthodox community
moved from the Lower East Side
to other parts of the city, residents
said.
It was unclear why the workers were
so close during the demolition, but fi re
offi cials said rescue crews had to pull
them from under the rubble, as parts
of the building hung on the edge of
further collapse.
It took minutes for emergency
personnel to remove them from the
debris. The worker who died at the
hospital had gone into cardiac arrest,
offi cials said.
Firefighters at the scene of the Oct. 21 wall collapse at the former
Beth Hamedrash Hagodol synagogue on the Lower East Side.
Firefi ghters kept their distance as
a stairway was barely holding onto
its supports. Pieces of the façade also
hung in the balance as Buildings Department
offi cials probed the debris.
The Department of Buildings
slapped a stop-work order on the site
as the investigation continued. Andrew
Rudansky, a spokesman for the Department
PHOTO BY TODD MAISEL
of Buildings, said inspectors
were on the scene. It was also too early
to say whether proper permits were in
place a the time of the collapse.
John Rivers, a volunteer with a local
church group, told amNewYork he
was standing outside the sight when it
collapsed.
“It all of a sudden just came tumbling
down,” Rivers said. “I, at fi rst,
thought it was just part of the demolition,
but then the Fire Department
came. I hope they are alright.”
Ira Smerkish, a former member of
the synagogue congregation and a resident
of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, said
efforts had been made to try to save it,
but they lacked the funds needed.
“I used to go to synagogue there,
but now I go to another one nearby,”
Smerkish said. “It was a lot of work
to clean it out and get all the Jewish
books out of it. We tried to save it. It
hurts to see it like this.”
The building was a gothic revival
structure built in 1850 as the Norfolk
Baptist Church and purchased in 1885
by the Jewish community that settled
on the lower east side at the time.
The synagogue was landmarked in
1967, and then listed on the National
Register of Historic Place in 1999.
The congregation had dwindled at
the turn of the millennium and the
remaining congregants were unable to
maintain the building, which had been
damaged by storms. Despite efforts to
raise funds to save it, the effort was
abandoned. The synagogue was closed
in 2007.
Susan De Vries contributed to this
report.
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