In late October, regulars of the Tompkins Square Park fitness area marched from the park to a Community Board 3 meeting at P.S. 20 on Essex Street. They carried signs, and enough of them spoke that the board put off its expected vote on a $9.93 million rebuild of the park's recreation area, according to EV Grieve. The petition behind the campaign reports more than 3,500 signatures.
On the city's capital project tracker, the same project shows construction at 0% complete and a construction start date of "To Be Determined." The argument is happening now, but the bulldozers are years away. That gap matters most to anyone who uses the bars, the courts or the mini-pool. The decisions being made this month will shape a space that won't change for a long time.
What Parks Wants to Build
The project covers three pieces of the recreation area. NYC Parks calls it the "Tompkins Square Park Mini Pool, Basketball Courts, and Adult Fitness Reconstruction." The plan removes the above-ground mini-pool and builds a larger in-ground one, then rebuilds the basketball courts and the adult fitness area. Parks' October 27 presentation to CB3 lists the money as $6.1 million from the governor's NY SWIMS program and $3.83 million from Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani. The stated goals are a modern in-ground mini-pool for children, better drainage and better accessibility, according to NYCuriosity's report on the October committee meeting.
Parks presented three ways to do the work:
- Option 1 renovates everything at once and takes about 18 months.
- Option 2 does the same work in two stages over 24 months, with the courts and pool first and the fitness area second.
- Option 3 leaves the fitness area and the new "flex" spaces near it untouched and still takes 18 months.
Option 3 tells you something. Dropping the fitness area doesn't shorten the schedule at all, which means the pool and the courts set the length of the job.
CB3's Parks, Recreation, Waterfront & Resiliency Committee backed Option 1 on Oct. 15. It asked Parks to keep the Avenue B half-court near the fitness area, EV Grieve reported.
The Schedule Parks Published
The tracker says design started in January 2026, is 30% complete, and is projected to finish in March 2027. No procurement or construction timeline will be set until the stage before it is finished. Committee members asked Parks for the full sequence at the October meeting, and the answer was longer than the tracker's averages.
| Stage | Parks' tracker | What Parks told the CB3 committee |
|---|---|---|
| Design | Started January 2026, projected done March 2027 | 5 to 6 months for construction documents |
| Regulatory review | Not listed separately | Department of Environmental Protection approvals, 6 or more months |
| Procurement | Start TBD, 9 to 12 months on average | About a year |
| Construction | Start TBD, 12 to 18 months on average | 18 to 24 months |
If the pre-construction steps Parks described happen one after another, they add up to about two years before work begins. The tracker lists the schematic design as approved inside Parks and now under review by the community board and outside regulators. The equipment is still in the park, and the space is fully open. The pull-up bars at Avenue B will be in use through at least another full winter.
The long timeline also means design is still underway. The layout, how many bars there are and where they go, and which courts stay are all being decided in a phase that runs through March 2027. That's why the next two meetings carry more weight than the construction start date.
Why the Bars Became the Flashpoint
The outdoor fitness area dates to the 1990s. NYC City News Service describes it as a community space that spans generations as well as a calisthenics spot. The same report profiles stunt performer Thea Rae, who travels 45 minutes from Bushwick to train there. She describes working out alongside people in their 20s, people in their 70s, and children. Rob Henderson, a 71-year-old regular, told the outlet he objected to the replacement materials and would rather see the existing bars repaired and welded. The outlet also reports that NYU urban-planning professor Salo Coslovsky created the online petition to save the fitness area in May. Back in July, EV Grieve reported that regulars treat the bars as a year-round gathering place and that calisthenics practitioners come from elsewhere to use them.
Parks has already changed its plans in response. The revised fitness-area design would use a 3D scan to copy the current layout. It also adds more pull-up and parallel bars than the first version and includes accessible equipment. Parks officials say the work is needed for accessibility and safety. Longtime users still question replacing equipment they consider functional, and they worry about losing access during construction.
Save Tompkins Square Park, the group that organized the gatherings with organizer Jahmal Kirwan among its speakers, has four requests for CB3. It wants the calisthenics area taken out of the project, as little disruption to basketball as possible, an improved pool and better accessibility, and continued access to the space. The group says Parks has offered to remove the calisthenics area from the project. It also describes the plan as shutting everything for two years or more. City Council Member Harvey Epstein has proposed a middle path. He wants a modified Option 3 that keeps the existing equipment and expands the fitness area to add ADA-accessible features. He said his office has heard from hundreds of Lower East Side residents on the issue.
The Two Dates That Decide It
The Tompkins presentation was on the agenda of CB3's Parks Committee meeting on Nov. 12 at 6:30 p.m. at 30 Delancey Street. The full board is scheduled to take it up on Nov. 24 at 6:30 p.m. The CB3 calendar has the agenda and the Parks presentation file. The Nov. 24 vote is the moment when the fitness area's future, whether it's kept, copied by scan, phased or rebuilt, becomes the board's formal position. That happens while design is still open.
If the Recreation Area Does Close
If construction comes, it will close the pool, the courts and the fitness area. The park's two playgrounds are elsewhere in Tompkins and aren't part of this project. NYC Parks lists these nearby alternatives:
- Hamilton Fish Park, about 0.4 miles away, is the closest match. It has basketball courts, outdoor fitness equipment and an Olympic-size outdoor pool.
- Dry Dock Playground and Pool, about 0.38 miles away on East 10th Street between Avenues C and D, has a basketball court and an intermediate-size outdoor pool.
- Murphy Brothers Playground, about 0.51 miles away, reopened in October 2024 after East Side Coastal Resiliency work. It has basketball and handball, and the reopening announcement also named two ballfields and dog runs.
- Sara D. Roosevelt Park has basketball, handball, a running track, soccer and volleyball. Parks doesn't list outdoor fitness equipment there.
Both outdoor pools closed for the season after Sunday, Sept. 13, so neither one is a cold-weather option. On the waterfront, East Side Coastal Resiliency reports that almost all East River Park amenities south of the Williamsburg Bridge reopened in September 2025, while the park's northern end is closed for Phase 2. The September 5, 2025 openings included six additional tennis courts and the amphitheater area. Since Nov. 3, the shared-use path next to East River Park Fields 1 and 2 has also been narrowed for final restoration work.
City projects near your block can affect how a building is valued, from a park rebuild with a two-year runway to a waterfront park reopening in phases. If you'd like to talk through what's planned near an East Village address you own or are considering, The Shapot Team is glad to help. Request a Market Consultation.
