BY ALINE REYNOLDS | About a dozen Chinatown residents braved the cold winds last week to tend to a small but cherished public space in their neighborhood.
For years, Kimlau Square, the quaint neighborhood park named after Chinese-American World War II Lieutenant Benjamin Ralph Kimlau, has hosted observances on Veteran’s Day and Memorial Day and has served as a peaceful oasis for area residents.
But in recent months, the square, fitted with stone planters, has become a playground for trick cyclists and a breeding ground for pigeons. Under the auspices of the city, community members have established a volunteer program to spruce up the park and deter the unwelcome guests.
“We don’t want it to be a haven for people to misuse the park,” said Constance Louie. “[The square] should be for the people in the area, and they should treat it with respect.”
“It’s like a gem here. We can come sit, read a newspaper, and relax,” said Louie’s sister, Cassandra Dick.
On Friday, Nov. 18, Kathi Cantalupo, a city-employed gardener for Community District 3, trained Louie, Dick, and the other volunteers on how to plant approximately 2,000 daffodils and grape hyacinths around the already-planted rose bushes that grow in the square’s three planters.
Cantalupo instructed the volunteers to bury the bulbs six inches into the ground in order to keep them from rotting during the winter. “We want to make sure we get them in deep enough so they’re in a nice, cozy little home,” she told the volunteers.
“The area’s been overgrown and hasn’t been worked [on] in several years,” said horticulturalist and C. D. 3 Park Manager Robert Mclean as he shoveled the freshly tilled soil. “What we’re going to do is turn the soil over and cut all the shrubs down in the spring.”
The bright-yellow daffodils and periwinkle blue hyacinths will bloom in springtime before returning to hibernation. Apart from removing the petals after blooming season, the flowers will require only periodic maintenance and watering, according to Cantalupo. “As far as we’re concerned, this is it – they’re going to come up now until forever,” she said.
The planting equipment and bulbs were provided by the Partnerships for Parks, a joint program of the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation and the City Parks Foundation.
“Funding being what it is, it think it’s difficult for [the Parks Department] to take care of every single corner,” said Jan Lee, a member of the Civic Center Residents Coalition. “We’re happy they’re giving this park recognition.”
Beautifying Kimlau Square will encourage area residents to relax in an intimate, public setting rather than stay cooped up in their apartments, according to Pearl Street resident and psychotherapist Edward Ma, who also partook in the volunteer effort last Friday.
“People don’t know how in modern life to pace themselves,” said Ma. “This [park] is a pacer, to make them calm down and take a break.”
“It’s so critical, because we all know how important greenery is to people’s mental state, to their spiritual state and also to their quality of life,” echoed Civic Center resident and volunteer Jeanie Chin.
The park’s upkeep requires more than just plantings, however, according to Lee. He and Park Row resident Nancy Linday have reached out to the Fifth Police Precinct requesting auxiliary police presence at the square to keep an eye out for unruly cyclists and pigeon feeders.
“If they insist [on leaving food for the pigeons], we’d hope police would be able to call for clean-up right away,” said Linday.
Having witnessed deliverymen whizz through the park on their bikes, area residents are also asking for bilingual signage telling cyclists to dismount. Earlier this year, they successfully lobbied for additional benches that blocked the planters and kept some of the trick cyclists away.
“If the benches aren’t enough,” said Lee, “I’m sure the Parks Department and us can come up with something that’s going to be both safe and a deterrent.”
