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Chatham Square Plaza to Get Spruced Up After Skaters Roll Out

By Patrick Hedlund

DNAinfo News Editor

CHATHAM SQUARE — Chinatown park-goers have unruly skateboarders to thank for helping transform a busy public plaza into an urban oasis.

After local residents complained last year about the scourge of skaters and cyclists overtaking Kimlau Square — "terrorizing" park-goers by using the plaza's sloped planters as ramps for their tricks — the Parks Department responded by planting "No Skateboarding" signs and stepping up enforcement in the area.

The city went on to install new benches in front of the planters, blocking riders from using the area as their own personal playground and giving passers-by more places to sit.

"I think people in the community have really taken that park back," said Jan Lee, of the Civic Center Residents Coalition, which pressed for more safety measures in the plaza. "We lost the park for years and years and years."

The effort to drive the skaters and cyclists out of Kimlau Square has grown into a larger push to beautify the Chatham Square plaza, which is bordered by East Broadway, Worth Street and Oliver Street, and includes historical features like a large memorial arch and statue of Chinese scholar Lin Xe Zu.

"We want to create a whole different atmosphere here," said Nancy Linday, a CCRC member who's lived nearby on Park Row for nearly two decades. "It's much more friendly for people to use it for exactly what it was designed to be used for, which is to relax and enjoy yourself."

She and the coalition are lobbying for the installation of even more benches in the plaza, as well as new rose bushes to replace the ailing greenery currently filling the planters.

Nearby merchants — who claimed that skaters and cyclists used to wreak havoc on the plaza by threatening to run into pedestrians, many of them elderly — said recent improvements in the square have also provided a boon to business.

"I haven't seen any skateboarders anymore, so I guess they did good," said Jimmy Cho, an employee of the Everest Diner, whose owner previously said that skaters shattered his glass entryway while attempting their tricks.

"We got a little bit more customers now. Before they were a little bit scared to come over. Some of them are even taking [their food] out to go sit down in the park now."

The Parks Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding when or if the new benches and plantings would arrive.

Lee suggested having people sponsor benches in the area the way they can currently do in Central Park to help cut costs.

"The park, even when it was really cold out, with the added benches we immediately saw them occupied," he said.

"It really makes that square a focal point again. I think this spring is going to be a real testing ground."