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'If this is what you want': East Village board halts vote on Tompkins Square overhaul
By
Willow Higgins
Published Oct 28, 2026 at 10:54 a.m. ET
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Willow Higgins/Gothamist
By
Willow Higgins
Published Oct 28, 2026 at 10:54 a.m. ET
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An East Village community board tabled an anticipated vote on a controversial, multimillion-dollar update to Tompkins Square Park after park preservationists at the meeting loudly flexed their vocal muscles over the fate of iconic pull-up bars.
“If this is what you want for the last word, this is what it will be,” said Arnette Scott, the chair of Community Board 3, addressing a handful of participants who yelled through a parks department presentation Tuesday night. “Everyone will have another time to voice their opinion.”
The board put off the vote on the $10 million overhaul until next month, after the preservationists – particularly those looking to hold onto the park’s old-school recreational equipment – refused to be quiet.
“The only vote I’m having is if I’m gonna call the cops,” said Scott. “Calm it down.”
The stir comes after the community board’s parks committee earlier this month backed the parks department’s plan. The full board was set to review the plan on Tuesday, until it didn’t. The renovations include updates to the 1990s-era outdoor fitness area, the adjacent basketball courts, and the kids-only swimming pool.
The parks department has said the amenities need to be made more accessible to all users, the public infrastructure needs improvement and the fitness equipment needs to be safe. The agency has updated its original plan: The renovated gym's layout would be kept mostly the same, and new materials would be used.
Participants at the heart of the preservation fight told Gothamist that they love the pull-up bars the way they are. They held up signs in a school auditorium that read: “keep the bars,” “repair don’t destroy,” and “we like it DON’T TOUCH.”
Salo Coslovsky, an associate professor of urban planning at NYU and an opponent of wholesale changes, considered the delayed vote a win.
“I don’t know who they are,” Coslovsky said of the hecklers who led to the postponement. “But someone thought it was worth their time and energy to show up and scream.”
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east village
new york city
parks department
tompkins square
Willow Higgins
Willow Higgins covers changes in New York City neighborhoods for WNYC and Gothamist. She has previously reported on wrongful convictions, corruption in district attorney offices and Texas' child welfare system.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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