The circle shortly after it was completed in 2010.
By Evelyn Levine
After nearly 25 years of design and development, sparing no expense, the Frederick Douglass Circle (FDC) was opened to the community in 2010 as a monument to the abolitionist Frederick Douglass, and a welcoming place for the community to come together. Instead, almost immediately, it created a hotbed of controversy about skateboarding in the park. The circle is located at the Northwest corner of Central Park, at 110th street.
Representatives from Friends of FDC presented a plan to the CB7/Parks Committee on Monday to modify the Circle to make the park less hospitable and appealing to skaters — who are currently illegally skateboarding in this posted “No-Skateboarding” park. The presentation also highlighted park design issues, such as sharp edges, which make skateboarding unsafe for the skaters; and consequently to anyone in their vicinity. Among the changes proposed in the redesign are “anti-skateboard texture” on the edges of some raised elements in the park.
Skaters are known to race down hills, sometimes fall, and chase the boards into oncoming traffic at a very busy intersection. This has become an issue of public safety to the point that one FDC representative could foresee how “one day a car will swerve to miss a skater and kill a pedestrian.” As appealing as it might be to the skaters, the park “was just not built as a skateboarding park, and it is just not safe for skateboarding” according to one CB member who has been involved with this issue for many years.
The skateboards have caused damage to the monument, and the Circle as a whole as a result of the skaters use of heated oil or wax on the stones. “This goes into the granite and cannot be cleaned out” said one CB member. Other park damage includes knocked-out lights and scars to the monument.
A section of the plan presented to the Community Board.
Other community members who were present registered additional complaints: including noise (especially in the late evening hours) and behaviors ranging from disrespect to the monument to menacing threats by the skaters whose attitude is one of “this is our place, we own it.” Also, it was noted by one Friends of FDC member that the skaters have, at times, interfered with other cultural, educational and political activities going on in the park.
A senior, who lives above the Circle, said she has been cursed many times, and even shoved: and another said “even having grown up in the rough and tumble of the 60s in NYC, I am afraid of these skaters, and is very troubled by a situation that is only getting worse.” Skateboarding, critics say, was at an all-time high this past summer.
Two young community members spoke at the meeting and urged the committee to come up with a compromise solution that will be “inclusive of all members of the community.” It was noted by a committee member that, in this instance, there was no feasible way to do that. It was also noted that a new skateboarding park – in Riverside Park – has just received financing and construction will begin shortly.
It was noted that the parks department, which advocated for stringent enforcement efforts for the past 5 years, has conceded that enforcement efforts have not been effective in deterring the skateboarders. No one from the NYC Parks Department was present at the meeting.
It was also noted by the committee that this type of issue has come up before, notably at Columbus Circle, and that re-design in the most feasible solution. The FDC redesign presented at this meeting has been approved by the original artist and architect.
As noted above, the committee voted (all in favor) of a resolution advocating for these design changes to deter further illegal skateboarding. The resolution will next go before the full Community Board.
Top image via Wikipedia.
I think Frederick Douglass would be horrified at the things bearing his name in this city.
Wouldn’t Mr. Douglass be MORE HORRIFIED at the STILL HORRID INEQUITIES faced by Americans of Color 120 years after his death, EVEN in NYC?
Wouldn’t he be horrified by the huge differences in opportunities for lucrative employment between Blacks and whites?
Wouldn’t he be horrified by the fact that NYC, for whatever reasons, STILL has one of the more segregated public school systems in the nation?
Wouldn’t he be horrified at the numbers of Black people slain by racist members of police departments across the country?
Yes, he’d be horrified…as are the Black teenagers who grow up realizing that their lives will be a constant struggle and that naming a traffic circle for Mr. Douglass is a meaningless sop meant to whitewash all the inequities.
So perhaps that’s WHY they skateboard on a “monument”… to express their contempt for a system rigged against them!
One does not exclude the other. He might be horrified at all those things.
Hey virtue signaller, our schools wouldn’t be so segregated if liberal hypocrites practiced what they preached and didn’t pull their precious snowflakes out of schools like PS 191.
What INTERESTING points!!
The SKATEBOARDERS are just PRACTICING their craft and exercising their CONSTITUTIONAL rights.
I wish I KNEW how to SKATEBOARD.
I am all for skateboarders having the ability to skateboard, but this (and other public spaces such as Columbus Circle) is not the place to do it. Enough of these hooligans destroying our cityscape with their boards.
Install metal stops along all the edges to dissuade them from acting like fools here. Extend the hours of the skateboard park in Riverside Park to provide them a place to live out their skater dreams.
Playing kids = hooligans? Entire ‘cityscapes’ being ‘destroyed’? Somebody call a SWAT!
This comment is absolutely everything wrong with the perception of skateboarding and a rigged, unmoving perception of everything it’s about.
Would you like to ban dancing and that gosh darn rock ‘n’ roll music too?
They’re not hooligans, they’re just kids doing something they’re passionate about.
“I’ll tell you one of the great activities is skateboarding. To learn to do a skateboard trick, how many times do you have to get something wrong til you get it right? And if you learn to do that trick, now you’ve got a life lesson. Whenever I see those skateboard kids, I think those kids are going to be alright.”
—Jerry Seinfeld
HOW ABOUT METAL SPIKES
Maybe we can bring back mimes to Columbus Circle?
More whining, next issue. Really people?
Not the real Mark…
Last I checked, the name ‘Mark’ was not copyrighted.
I completely agree
I never see anyone in that space. It could be much nicer than what is there. Happy to know that at least skaters are using it.
That indeed is the kicker. People complain about skateboarder presence. Long before it became a mini haven for skaters, nobody was using the space. People are much more concerned with what they consider an “eyesore” than using this to take a chance to see it from a different perspective
Skaters are known to race down hills in this park??
This park took 25 years to design and build???
Are there any other parks nearby?
A co-existence solution seems like a good compromise. This comes across like Get Off My Lawn.
This is a park? It’s an overgrown concrete median; a busy traffic turnaround with nothing inviting about it at all. At least Columbus Circle has a fountain ringed with an appealing wood seating space and an effective barrier to traffic. I saw 3 skateboarders being ticketed @ Columbus Circle on Thursday evening. The skateboarders should have their own uptown park.
Meanwhile there’s a skateboarding park in Riverside that doesn’t seem to get much use.