Coleman Playground is a

public park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a municipal park (North America) or a public park, public open space, or municipal gardens ( UK), is a park in cities and other incorporated places that offer recreation and green space to r ...

on the border between the Chinatown and Lower East Side neighborhoods of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

History

New York City Street Skateboarders At Harold Hunter Park

The park is named in honor of an U.S. Army Corporal Joseph Francis Coleman who died in 1919. Before

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the Coleman family lived nearby on Madison Street. Coleman fought in France as a member of the 321st Field Artillery, the 82nd Division of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF). Coleman died on June 16, 1919 at Base Hospital in

Hoboken, New Jersey Hoboken ( ; Unami: ') is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 60,417. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 58,690 i ...

, after contracting tuberculosis in the trenches. Exactly six months after Coleman's death, the Board of Aldermen named this playground in his honor.

LES Skatepark

Under the bridge, Coleman Playground features a

skatepark A skatepark, or skate park, is a purpose-built recreational environment made for skateboarding, BMX, scootering, wheelchairs, and aggressive inline skating. A skatepark may contain half-pipes, handrails, funboxes, vert ramps, stairse ...

officially called the Coleman Playground Skatepark but often referred to as the LES Skatepark, LES Park, Coleman Square Skatepark, or Chinatown Skatepark. The park began as a DIY spot on old abandoned basketball courts, with the only obstacle being the double stair set that still exists today. In the early 2000s, the city installed pre-fab obstacles to mixed reviews. The locals skaters including Steve Rodriguez received a grant from the Tony Hawk Foundation to fix up the obstacles. The LES skatepark went through a complete concrete remodeled in 2012 and now features ledges, jumps, rails and a pyramid. This skate park is unsupervised. No bikes are allowed; inline skates are permitted. The 2012 redesign was led by Rodriguez with funding from Nike SB. In 2017, the artist

Barbara Kruger Barbara Kruger (born January 26, 1945) is an American conceptual artist and collagist associated with the Pictures Generation. She is most known for her collage style that consists of black-and-white photographs, overlaid with declarative captio ...

created an installation at the park which featured Kruger's signature bold text on

ramps An inclined plane, also known as a ramp, is a flat supporting surface tilted at an angle from the vertical direction, with one end higher than the other, used as an aid for raising or lowering a load. The inclined plane is one of the six clas ...

, rails, and walls with slogans like “WANT IT. NEED IT. BUY IT.” and “THE GLOBE SHRINKS FOR THOSE WHO OWN IT.” The installation is no longer visible. In 2019, Steve Rodriguez and Adidas Skateboarding hosted a

Go Skateboarding Day Go Skateboarding Day (GSD) is an annual promotional event organized by the International Association of Skateboard Companies (IASC). It grew from the All Star City Skate Jam held by Kerel "SriKala" Roach and Bryan Chin in 2002 in New York City, and ...

event at the park. The following day Rodriguez and Red Bull Skate hosted a best trick contest at the park with

Jamie Foy Jamie Foy (born June 14, 1996) is a regular-footed American skateboarder. Foy was crowned 2017 Skater of the Year by ''Thrasher'' magazine. He is part of the New Balance Numeric skateboarding team. Career Foy was born and grew up in Deerfiel ...

References

{{Protected areas of New York City Urban public parks Parks in Manhattan Lower East Side