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Lear on WNYC and

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now we will end

0:34

today's show with a

0:37

look at new developments

0:39

in our city's most iconic

0:41

park as temperatures rise and

0:43

spring flowers settle in and

0:46

burst out. Surely many of

0:48

you are looking forward to

0:50

a stroll in Central Park

0:52

this weekend if you're anywhere

0:54

around that area. If you

0:56

usually enter the park, say,

0:58

south of 96th Street, the

1:00

Central Park Conservancy has a

1:02

new attraction opening on Friday

1:04

tomorrow that you'll want to

1:06

head uptown for, and of

1:08

course a lot of you live

1:11

in that uptown area. So joining me

1:13

now to introduce you. to the brand

1:15

new Davis Center at the Harlem Mir

1:17

and maybe to discuss some other new

1:20

initiatives in the pipeline if we have

1:22

time in Central Park is Betsy Smith

1:24

president and CEO of the Central Park

1:27

Conservancy. Betsy, thanks so much for coming

1:29

on. Welcome to WNYC today. Thank you

1:31

very much Brian. And listeners in addition

1:33

to whatever you want to say or

1:35

ask about the Harlem Mir part of

1:38

the park, we'll throw it open in

1:40

this segment for Your Underrated Activities

1:42

or Spots in Central Park.

1:44

Share them with other people.

1:46

Don't keep them to yourselves.

1:48

Do you have a secret

1:50

birding spot or a place

1:52

that stays cool even on

1:54

the hottest of days, whatever,

1:56

as well as your questions

1:58

and stories for our guest,

2:00

two, one, two, four, three,

2:02

WNY... 212-433-3-9-692. So Betsy, tell

2:05

us about the Davis Center.

2:07

Well, it's very very exciting Brian.

2:10

I mean, I would say that

2:12

this is one of the most

2:14

exciting projects that we've seen in

2:16

Central Park in really many years

2:19

and, you know, the Central Park

2:21

Conservancy has been around since 1980.

2:23

We were formed to in effect

2:26

rescue the park that had been

2:28

abandoned by the city during its

2:30

bankruptcy and in that time we

2:32

have invested a tremendous amount of

2:35

time and expertise in bringing the

2:37

park back. And our capstone project

2:39

is the Davis Center at the

2:42

Harlem Mayor. It's a magnificent project,

2:44

one of our largest projects, our

2:46

largest project in fact. And it

2:48

is replacing an aging facility, many

2:51

of you may remember, the Lasker

2:53

Pool in Rink, which had a

2:55

number of problems which we can

2:58

discuss, but the new Davis Center

3:00

is a magnificent pool. It's a

3:02

skating rink. In the shoulder seasons,

3:04

it's going to be a turf

3:07

field. And it is a gift

3:09

to Harlem, to New York, and

3:11

to the city, just in its

3:14

imagination and how beautiful it is.

3:16

In this context, I think it's

3:18

important to say Central Park has

3:21

a rocky racial history, beginning with

3:23

its very founding, right? It sits

3:25

on the land in which Seneca

3:27

Village used to be. And in

3:30

more recent history, it's central to

3:32

the president's smear of... five black

3:34

and Latino teenagers wrongfully convicted of

3:37

a brutal rape in April of

3:39

1989, now known as the exonerated

3:41

five, formerly the Central Park Five.

3:43

And it dawns on me that

3:46

the Davis Center is opening in

3:48

April as well. Can you talk

3:50

about the significance of this project

3:53

happening in Harlem? Is this project

3:55

an act of racial justice in

3:57

your view? Because I think, you

3:59

know, part of the idea coming

4:02

from you at the Central Park

4:04

Conservancy is that that area which

4:06

is you know in the southern

4:09

part of Harlem has been historically

4:11

neglected compared to other parts of

4:13

the park. Well actually Brian that

4:15

that doesn't actually that's not really

4:18

true we have been invested since

4:20

the conservancy was founded some of

4:22

our earliest projects. have been up

4:25

in Harlem and a good third

4:27

of the amount of money that

4:29

we've raised to restore the park

4:31

has really been up in the

4:34

northern part of the park. In

4:36

fact, the original restoration of the

4:38

Harlem Mir itself was in the

4:41

late 80s. So we have been

4:43

investing in the northern part of

4:45

the park for many, many years

4:48

and I should say that in

4:50

any restoration project that the Central

4:52

Park Conservancy takes on, we are

4:54

very closely aligned with the community.

4:57

You know, we really run the

4:59

park for the communities that surround

5:01

it. And the Harlem Air Center

5:04

is really a perfect example of

5:06

that. We have been working with

5:08

them since 2017 on what they

5:10

really wanted to see. You know,

5:13

the Alaska facility was very run

5:15

down and had engineering challenges. It

5:17

really was not cutting it for

5:20

the Harlem community, but they wanted

5:22

to have a recreational facility there.

5:24

So we met with community groups,

5:26

with the community boards, community leaders

5:29

to really find out what they

5:31

wanted and they were very invested

5:33

in having something new and beautiful

5:36

there and really to address your

5:38

question about their somewhat problematic relationship

5:40

with Central Park. We really wanted

5:42

to reconnect Harlem to the rest

5:45

of the park because one of

5:47

the things about the old Lasker

5:49

Center is that it served as

5:52

a block between the Harlem communities

5:54

and the rest of Central Park

5:56

just because of the configuration of

5:58

the landscapes up there. So one

6:01

of the things we really did

6:03

when we thought about the Davis

6:05

Center was how could we create

6:08

a facility that encouraged the effort.

6:10

exploration of the rest of the

6:12

park by the Harlem communities by

6:15

opening up the water course and

6:17

opening up the pathways so that

6:19

people felt more welcome in the

6:21

park. And I'll also add that

6:24

in our many community conversations, Brian,

6:26

with Harlem as we were envisioning

6:28

this, we did, of course, confront

6:31

the history of the Central Park

6:33

Five. And one of the things

6:35

that came out of that was

6:37

a real desire by the Harlem

6:40

community to commemorate the Central Park

6:42

Five, now called the Exonerated Five,

6:44

and you may know that there

6:47

was a gate opening into the

6:49

park right at, right near Lennox

6:51

Avenue, Malcolm X, and 110th Street,

6:53

which we renamed the Gate of

6:56

the Exonerated, and it was a

6:58

tremendously healing moment for the community,

7:00

a tremendous turnout. There hasn't been

7:03

a new named gate in Central

7:05

Park in 100 years. So it

7:07

was a way for us to

7:09

help the community feel more connected

7:12

to Central Park. Yeah, and you

7:14

know there's a glowing review that

7:16

I'm sure you've seen by the

7:19

critic Michael Kimelman in the New

7:21

York Times now on what you're

7:23

reopening and opening. It says a

7:25

stunning new pool in Central Park.

7:28

helps heal old wounds. And he

7:30

says this northern stretch of the

7:32

park was shamefully neglected when the

7:35

city was at its nadir. In

7:37

fairness, I think that's before the

7:39

Central Park Conservancy as a private

7:42

organization helping to fund Central Park

7:44

was created. And he writes, so

7:46

Davis also comes as an act

7:48

of civic reparation. And he cites

7:51

the Central Park Five. Jeff and

7:53

Queens. You're on WNYZ. Hi Jeff.

7:56

Hi Brian, hi, good morning. I

7:58

just wanted to say that that

8:01

myself and between 30 and 40

8:03

of my fellow cyclists were in

8:05

the park this morning at about

8:07

536 a.m. And we certainly enjoyed

8:09

the fresh tarmac on the lower

8:12

half of the park. We certainly

8:14

enjoyed watching the fencing come down

8:16

on what I guess we would

8:18

call the last word to sense

8:20

by the old pool. I guess

8:23

that said, my question is I

8:25

know there's a plan for next

8:27

season to sort of repave. the

8:29

northern half of Central Park. But

8:31

given all the construction that happened

8:34

by Old Lasker and Al Davis

8:36

area, is there any efforts to

8:38

maybe put some new tarmac down,

8:40

at least on that stretch, because

8:42

with all the construction and everything,

8:45

it's gotten to be sort of

8:47

very hectic. The other, or very

8:49

chop, the other thing I would

8:51

point out is that while the

8:53

fresh tarmacack is great, you know,

8:56

we're sort of anxiously waiting for

8:58

the repaint and the redesign, because

9:00

when you have just black, open

9:02

spaces, people tend to be everywhere

9:04

and it's sort of unsafe for

9:07

everyone whether it's cyclists runners or

9:09

pedestrians and then I'll just take

9:11

a minute to suggest that I

9:13

don't know what sort of where

9:15

the Central Park Observatory has in

9:18

this sort of argument but is

9:20

there any discussion about finally removing

9:22

the horses from the southern end

9:24

of Central Park? I mean for

9:26

all the talk about public safety

9:29

and getting the trash off the

9:31

streets Having to Central Park routinely

9:33

covered in horse manure is both

9:35

just generally unpleasant, disgusting, and both

9:37

a safety concern and directly a

9:40

public health. Jeff, thank you very

9:42

much. There's a lot of questions

9:44

in there. Take one or two

9:46

of your choice, Betsy. Okay, well,

9:48

listen, the drives of Central Park

9:51

are the most heavily used resource

9:53

in Central Park, and we did

9:55

a full study with a tremendous

9:57

amount of community input on how

9:59

we should rethink the way the

10:02

drives work ever since we took

10:04

the cars out of the park

10:06

in 2018. There's been sort of

10:08

an increasing chaos of use on

10:10

the park between the runners, the

10:13

bikers, the cyclists, the horse garages,

10:15

the e-bikes. It got to be

10:17

a little out of control. So

10:19

we have done a two-year study.

10:21

We are the result of that.

10:24

actually is repaving the drive which

10:26

you're right the lower part of

10:28

the of the drive of the

10:30

loop has been done from about

10:32

96th Street down to 59th Street

10:35

and then back up to 90th

10:37

Street. We did that lower loop

10:39

because of the construction in the

10:41

upper part of the park and

10:43

we didn't want to repay the

10:46

drives but that's coming soon. We'll

10:48

soon have the entire loop repaved

10:50

and the striping is coming soon.

10:52

We did a lot of work

10:54

on how we could designate certain

10:57

lanes on the drive in a

10:59

consistent way to the different users.

11:01

Right now there's nothing, so you

11:03

can tell what chaos that would

11:05

be if we didn't come back

11:08

with some intelligent striping plan. I

11:10

think the materials, the colors, the

11:12

directions that will be on the

11:14

drives will be intuitive. It's going

11:16

to make the crosswalk safer. We're

11:19

changing the lights. We're doing a

11:21

lot to make the drives better

11:23

for cyclists like you. and all

11:25

the people were trying to cross

11:27

the drive and use it in

11:30

different ways. We have a pushback

11:32

text on something that the caller

11:34

said and then on something about

11:36

the drive around the park, listener

11:38

writes, I cycle regularly in Central

11:41

Park and love the horses, so

11:43

our caller from Queens. There's a

11:45

counterpoint to that and to you

11:47

Betsy listen to rights I used

11:49

to contribute to the Conservancy until

11:52

the park Started allowing e-bikes, which

11:54

at the very least makes crossing

11:56

all park streets until pleasant and

11:58

sometimes they're even on the pedestrian

12:00

paths. So what about e-bikes as

12:03

opposed to manual bikes? You know,

12:05

look, we're trying to make the

12:07

drive as safe as possible. We've

12:09

got 40 million people using the

12:11

park every year. It's very very

12:14

important that we try to give

12:16

direction. We can't forbid e-bikes, that's

12:18

a city law. You know, we

12:20

don't create those laws. The city

12:22

has allowed e-bikes and they've allowed

12:25

them in the parks. So what

12:27

we're trying to do is try

12:29

to direct them in a way

12:31

that makes it safe for other

12:33

people. It's one of the most

12:36

frequent complaints we get. People do

12:38

not feel safe with e-bikes beating

12:40

by. And there's other than trying

12:42

to direct them on the drive

12:44

and have people around that remind

12:47

people of what the rules are

12:49

within the park, which is our

12:51

new Central Park Ranger Corps. I

12:53

think we can sort of keep

12:55

our fingers crossed but hope that

12:58

the directions on the drive themselves

13:00

will make things safer. And I'd

13:02

add one thing, Brian, which I

13:04

think will be a very interesting

13:06

experiment. We're working with the Department

13:08

of Transportation to create a bike

13:11

lane on the transfers roads, which

13:13

as you know are the sunken

13:15

transfers is through the park. And

13:17

I think getting a lot of...

13:19

the commercial bike traffic, the delivery

13:22

people, the people who are commuting,

13:24

who want just simply to go

13:26

through the park without using the

13:28

drives, I think that will reduce

13:30

the number of bikes in the

13:33

park as well. So like a

13:35

bike lane crossing at 86th Street

13:37

and 79th Street, those kinds of

13:39

things. Both ways. I think that

13:41

will help the, help the chaos.

13:44

Anthony in the Bronx, you're on

13:46

WNYan, Marcy. Hi Brian, thanks for

13:48

taking my call. I just want to state

13:50

that I am a hollow knight born and

13:52

raised that currently live in the Bronx, but

13:54

I've known for many decades that the northern

13:56

section of the Bronx over by a hundred

13:58

and three from 8th Avenue. Park. I'm sorry.

14:00

Has been neglected for decades and now that

14:02

is gentified that's when you want to do

14:04

the work there but for all of these

14:06

years you never did anything over there. I

14:08

used to swim in that pool on the

14:10

corner over there on Central Park. You so

14:13

visit the lake over there that had fish

14:15

in it during the day. But for many,

14:17

many, many years, you took care of the

14:19

southern, the central part, the central part of

14:21

the part, and the southern part, but you

14:23

neglected the northern part for all of these

14:25

decades. Now that is gentrified. You're going to

14:27

start doing the work, and the people can't

14:29

even enjoy it anymore. Anthony, thank you very

14:31

much. Well, you hear his cynicism. Quite the

14:33

opposite of this is an act of reparations

14:35

that Michael Kimmelman wrote in the Times today,

14:37

but what's your response. Well, what I'd say

14:39

is that, look, I can't really address the

14:41

whole history of the park from before 1980

14:43

when the Conservancy was founded, but the Conserv-

14:45

you know, the Central Park was really created

14:47

as a place for every person, and it

14:49

has been, it is a monumentally-sized park, it's

14:51

very, very complicated to take care of, but

14:53

we knew when we started our work that

14:55

we did need to take care of the

14:57

entire park, and we have now restored. large

14:59

parts of the North Woods, the Great Hill,

15:01

now the Harlem Mere, the Conservatory Garden, there

15:03

really has been a tremendous amount of investment

15:05

in that part of the park. I will

15:07

say, though, you're not wrong about the old

15:09

Lasker Pool. It was a facility that had

15:11

been very run down, it was decrepit, it

15:13

was unattractive, it was a block. We, the

15:15

Conservancy, really didn't have the capacity until recently,

15:17

both professionally and financially, to take on... a

15:19

project of that size and once we really

15:22

the city came to us in 2017 and

15:24

said, said you know something

15:26

something we really want

15:28

to try to fix

15:30

and we said we

15:32

would love to fix

15:34

to give us some

15:36

time to us figure it

15:38

out and we came

15:40

back with this magnificent

15:42

plan but we just

15:44

have 15 seconds left

15:46

if people want to

15:48

celebrate this reopening on

15:50

Friday tomorrow the day

15:52

of or maybe this

15:54

weekend day of, or maybe should

15:56

they do what can

15:58

they do we have

16:00

15 seconds they do? We have

16:02

15 seconds to tell

16:04

you that the the... the

16:06

David Center opens on

16:08

Saturday at at noon. going

16:10

to be a going

16:12

of activity so it's

16:14

going to be a

16:16

lot of fun with

16:18

food and drink and

16:20

performances and tours and I

16:22

I really encourage everyone

16:24

to come look at

16:26

this magnificent new facility

16:29

it's a gift to

16:31

Harlem it's a gift

16:33

to the to and

16:35

a gift to the a

16:37

gift to the Smith a and

16:39

CEO of the Central

16:41

Park Conservancy thank you

16:43

so much for joining

16:45

us and congratulations on

16:47

this you so much for you

16:49

Brian us and stay tuned

16:51

for all of it

16:53

this. Thank you Brian.