Sara Delano Roosevelt Park

 It is located south of Houston, north of Canal, east of Forsyth and west of Chrystie, and runs for 7 blocks.

I never thought that one day I would be able to walk through this park.  Now, I can spend a beautiful holiday weekend sitting in a lush garden after watching a soccer game.  Years age it was not the place you would ever think of taking the kids or even Fido.  But like a great many places in this city it has changed for the better and keeps changing.  It was named after FDR's mother, and was built in 1934.  It has a Senior Center, turf Soccer field, roller skating rink, basketball, handball, and bocce courts.  It also has a garden with a rooster that cock-a-doodles all day.

The bocce court is inside the M'Finda Kalunga Garden, which translated means "the garden at the edge of the other side of the world".  It is named after the African-American burial ground that was located on Chrystie  between Rivington and Stanton Streets.  The first African slaves were brought to NY by the Dutch in the early 1500s.  By 1748 African-Americans were 20% of the city's population and so this land was given to them for a burial ground in 1794.  As the city grew the graves were moved.

 a book of poems a jug of wine and me!

The garden was founded in 1983 as a "beachhead against the overwhelming drug problem in the park"  Thank you to the Community Coalition that created the park and to the 20 volunteers who maintain it.