Nearly $10 million renovation gives
Lower East Side residents a greener park
BY DEAN MOSES
Lower East Side residents are now enjoying
the new and improved Luther
Gulick Park, which was formally
reopened last week following a nearly $10
million renovation.
Parks Department offi cials joined local
civic leaders at the greenspace, located at
the corner of Delancey Street and Bialystoker
Place, on Nov. 4 to cut the ribbon on
the new-and-improved park.
Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver said
the Gulick Park renovations are a decade
in the making, spurred by local residents to
transform a fi eld dominated by blacktop into
a green oasis in the heart of the neighborhood.
“This was just an asphalt fi eld, it was like
a parking lot but they still loved the space,”
Silver said. “They came to us and we got
a lot of money from the mayor’s offi ce and
from other partners and transformed this
space. This is beyond our expectation.
This has everything for everyone. It is now
bringing the entire community together.”
Checking out the table tennis area at Luther
Gulick ParkPhoto by Dean Moses The
passive recreation areas at Luther Gulick
Park.Photo by Dean Moses
Cutting the ribbon at Luther Gulick Park on the Lower East Side on Nov. 4, 2020.
The Gulick Park renovations were
completed despite delays related to the
COVID-19 pandemic, Silver noted. Like
many other projects, the renovations were
slowed at the height of the outbreak between
March and April.
Among the improvements at the park are
new pathways and plantings; refurbished
handball and table tennis areas; an adult
fitness center; a modernized comfort
PHOTO BY DEAN MOSES
station; and passive recreational areas.
The playground also features equipment
for children of all ages and abilities, meeting
and/or exceeding ADA requirements,
according to the Parks Department.
Also at the center of the Gulick Park
renovations are new basketball courts, fi tting
because the park is named for the man
considered as the “godfather of basketball.”
Luther Gulick was the physical education
director at the Springfi eld, Massachusetts
YMCA in 1891 when he challenged one of
his colleagues, James Naismith, to create a
new indoor game during the winter months.
That led to the development of basketball.
While Naismith is credited as the sport’s
inventor, Gulick was recognized in 1959 as
a “contributor” to the sport when he was
posthumously inducted into the Basketball
Hall of Fame.
The new look Gulick Park has so far
received rave reviews from the community,
according to Silver.
“It’s bringing different neighborhoods
together from the public housing to residents
on the north side of Delancey. It is
just a great public space, as you can see
by all of the families here during COVID,”
Silver said. “It is so good to get out. The
kids will get healthy, there are places for
the parents to sit, handball, sitting lawn. It
has a little bit of everything for everybody.”
Joining Silver at the Nov. 4 ribbon cutting
were City Councilwoman Margaret
Chin, Lower Manhattan Development
Corporation Chair Holly Leicht, Manhattan
Community Board 3 Parks Committee
Chair Trever Holland, and Lisa Gulick,
great-grand-niece of Luther Gulick.
Thousands gather on LES for rabbi’s funeral
BY BOB KRASNER
While many in the city gathered
together to celebrate the election
news this weekend, there
was a different type of gathering on Sunday
morning on the Lower East Side.
Thousands of mourners
gathered in front of, and beyond,
the Mesivtha Tifereth Jerusalem
yeshiva on East Broadway to
mourn the loss of their 91 yearold
dean, Rabbi Dovid Feinstein.
A world renowned torah
Mourners pass by heavily armed police around the corner from the
event. Rabbi Dovid Feinstein Memorial, 11/8/2020, East Broadway.
scholar, Feinstein was also an
halachic authority, considered by
many as the leading authority of
Jewish law in the United States.
The large crowd was packed in
tight but masked, at least. Heavily
armed NYPD offi cers were on
PHOTOS BY BOB KRASNER
hand, but there were no counters.
The orthodox leader’s remains were then
fl own to Israel for burial where, The Times
Of Israel reported, an equally large crowd
saw a few arrests as mourners clashed with
police over crowd size restrictions due to
COVID-19.
Participants filled a couple of blocks on East Broadway.
4 November 12, 2020 Schneps Media