Central Park makes peace with Harlem

(New York) Through the fence of a fence, Diane Matos contemplates an immense oval swimming pool in which up to 1000 people will be able to bang or swim, from June 27, after some final preparations, including the chloration of its still greenish water.

“I can’t wait! », Sets Harlem’s resident, a spark in the eyes. “The swimming pool will not only be a new attraction for people in the neighborhood. It will represent the start of a new era. »»

This is the goal of the case.

The swimming pool is the centerpiece of the Davis Center at the Harlem Meer, a US 160 million project that completes the transformation of a long neglected central park corner, and one of the darkest chapters in New York history has occurred.

It will be metamorphosis in an ice rink during the winter months and in versatile terrain in spring and fall.

Aged 42, Diane Matos remembers the old decrepit Lasker swimming pool which was in the same place, in this part of the north of Central Park around Harlem and East Harlem, Manhattan districts mainly composed of blacks and Latinos.

“I brought my boy and daughter there when they were little,” says the New York, who earns her life as a treater.

“But it will be much better with the new swimming pool because there will be new rules,” she adds in a confident tone.

There will also be a new pavilion, which seems to blend into nature, to welcome bathers, skaters, dancers and followers of several other disciplines.

The gateway

Begun in 2021, the transformation of the northern part of Central Park is not limited to the Davis Center at the Harlem Meer, whose full name refers to the artificial lake built at the confluence of three streams by landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux.

One of the park’s doors, located along Central Park North, has been renamed “Gate of the Exonerate” (the gateway to the eggs) to heal an injury. This name refers to the “five of Central Park”, these young adolescents – four blacks and a Latino – who had been unjustly condemned for the rape and attempted murder of Trisha Meili, a 28 -year -old white jogger, in April 1989, in a path south of the Harlem Meer.

They were exonerated in 2001. However, after having long considered the northern part of Central Park as their rear court, many residents of Harlem and East Harlem felt excluded.

And each new initiative made in this corner of the park is presented as a gesture to heal the old injury.

“The opening of the Davis Center at the Harlem Meer represents an important step in the healing of the complex relationship between Central Park and the community of Harlem – a relationship that has always been marked by alienation and injustice,” said Betsy Smith, president of the Central Park Conservancy, the non -profit organization that manages the park.

“We were afraid”

Lavastian Glenn, now 54, lived in East Harlem in April 1989. She remembers the word Wilding that the Daily News had used after the rape of Trisha Meili to describe an alleged fashionable hobby among young people who consist in attacking passers-by for free, including joggers and cyclists of Central Park.

“I remember asking my brother what this word meant, Wilding “, Says the counselor in philanthropy and organizational development, seated on a bench in the north of Central Park, where she was reading.

“We did not know this word. We frequented the park to walk, play football on the lawn or go to the swimming pool. But the idea that young blacks went to the park to engage in Wildingit was an invention of the media. It was very racist. And Trump got involved by buying pubs in the newspapers to claim the return of the death penalty. We were afraid. We didn’t understand what was going on. »»

Thirty-six years later, Donald Trump continues to dominate the news, but the northern part of Central Park has changed for the best, in the eyes of Lavastian Glenn.

The result is obviously far from the original Olmsted and Vaux plan, who wanted to give the northern part of Central Park the most natural or wild aspect. But a stream began to flow under the impressive stone ark called Huddlestone Arch and to feed the Harlem Meer.

And a pedestrian trail that the Lasker swimming pool once again barred this stream, leading to a new bridge and a new walk that winds along the southern shore of the lake.

The whole gives access to several trails popular with ornithologists, hikers and cynophiles.

“We have many more trails to walk our dog,” says Anthony Valentino, a 39 -year -old security advisor, who moved New Jersey to Harlem a year ago.

“It’s always interesting to see how wild life is in New York. All birds, turtles. From time to time, if we sink enough into the woods, we see coyotes. It is a magnificent scene throughout the year. »»

Sweating and line fishing

But the continuous arrival of young professionals like Anthony Valentino in Harlem contributes to a confuse of the district which arouses discomfort or a doubt among certain residents who have emerged or who have been living there for a long time.

“Do you see this building?” “Said Ronald Neal, pointing to a tower that stands along Central Park North. “There are luxury condos. Do you see this other building? It is a shelter for homeless. Now, tell me: for whom has this part of Central Park been renovated? »»

Born 70 years ago in Harlem, the federal retirement official leaves the question unanswered, reviving his line in the Harlem Meer, where he has been fishing for 40 years.

“I taught my daughter, to my grandchildren and to the quantity of other children how to fish here,” he said before listing some of the fish found in the lake: Achigan, Crapet-Sun, Carp, Maillard pike, Barbotte.

“I must say that the maintenance of the lake has improved,” he adds.

The Harlem Meer today attracts fishermen from all the districts of New York and even from abroad, including Florian Hassenpflug, a German tourist who never moves without a fishing rod.

“I live to fish,” says this manager of a 30 -year -old petrol station who participates in fishing competitions.

“It is an ideal place for fishing because the water is shallow,” he adds. “Fish cannot hide. But the difficulty is that there are a lot of fishermen. We can see that the fish are very, very intelligent. »»

But not to the point of preventing him from catching two Achigans, which he kindly recovered in the water, as required by the park’s regulations.