Protective of Their Park, CB1 Rejects a Renaming Request

By Barry Owens

There is precious little park space on the east side of Lower Manhattan and Community Board 1 is protective of every square inch of it—from the benches and planned play space at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge to the open land way out on the southern end of Governor’s Island.

So last month when a small contingent from “uptown” came to the community board with a request to rename the recently rescued Pearl Street Park, members of the board’s Seaport/Civic Center Committees reflexively grew defensive—even if the proposal was delivered sweetly by a group of 3rd- and 4th-graders.

Students from P.S. 361, on East 12th Street, hoped to rename the park for Elizabeth Jennings, an African-American woman who in 1854 was forcibly removed from a horse-drawn bus at Pearl and Chatham Streets. The incident sparked a landmark court case more than 100 years before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in Montgomery, Ala.

Board members literally applauded the students’ presentation and history lesson, but were still not swayed.

“How many of you actually play in that park?” asked board member Joe Lerner.

Miriam Sicherman, the students’ teacher, explained that the class made their first visit to the park on that very day, but while they were there they collected 336 signatures on a petition in favor of renaming the park. She also produced a printout of an e-mail of support from the city’s Parks Commissioner, Adrian Benepe.

“He’s no friend of ours,” said Lerner, pointing out that the board only recently won a skirmish with the Parks Department and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation that saved the park from demolition. Officials planned to replace it with housing as part of the revitalization of Fulton Street.

“You happen to have picked a playground that is relatively new and we would like its name to be more personal to the community,” explained board member Paul Hovitz.

The students were offered a different location for a plaque honoring Jennings, a busy bus stop on Park Row in front of City Hall—the end of the line for many Downtown-bound buses.

A bus stop is a fitting location, perhaps, but a far cry from the peaceful playground that Sicherman said her class had hoped for. They plan to return to the board this month with an answer.

“The park was their idea,” the teacher said after the meeting. “This is a little disappointing, but I’m flexible. The most important thing is that the kids see that their idea is being taken seriously.”