Note: Donations to Save Horatio Park are not being collected through this petition. Donations after voting are not encouraged or required to participate in this initiative.

Corporal John A. Seravalli Playground in the West Village, also known as Horatio Park, was created 60 years ago specifically to be a safe and open space for kids to play in downtown NYC.

Generations of NYC kids have spent meaningful parts of their youth at Horatio Park playing, learning to ride bikes, making new friends, and just doing what kids do. The unique wide-open blacktop area is the only dedicated and protected expansive play area where children can freely move in all of the West Village and Greenwich Village. Horatio Park was a vital community gathering place and the heart and soul of life for many West Village children and families, a haven they have peacefully shared with other adult users such as rollerbladers, basketball players, and skateboarders, as well as residents of all ages who choose to walk through the space and soak in the microcosm of urban family life it contains. 

Until now.

Without any input from the community, the NYC Dept of Parks & Recreation quietly approved two large pickleball courts that now dominate the open play space. Players now endlessly swarm the playground daily, spreading out far beyond their two courts, effectively overtaking the entire playground during peak times. The children have been squeezed out and many have stopped going altogether.

Pickleball courts clearly cannot coexist in a widely used community playground. Pickleball, like tennis, requires large, designated courts to protect players and non-players.  It is dangerous and unfair to the children to let this sudden land grab happen at their expense.

Please sign the petition to have NYC Parks & Rec immediately end all pickleball at Horatio Park and return the playground to its intended use - an inclusive, multi-use community space for free play.