Was It Worth It? New Yorkers Weigh in on the New Davis Center

HOST, CAROLINE MCCARTHY: The Lasker Rink and Pool at the top of Central Park served Harlem for over 60 years. In the winter local teams played ice hockey, and in the summer the rink turned into a pool where families cooled down in the heat. But, despite thousands of signatures from the community in opposition, the beloved facility was demolished in 2020 to be redeveloped. Five years and 160 million in taxpayer dollars later, the facility has reopened. Reporter Dana Binfet asks was it worth it?

NARRATOR, DANA BINFET: A block south of 110th St, New Yorkers are crowding a big green lawn on the northside of Central Park. It’s opening day at the Davis Center, what used to be Lasker Rink and Pool. People are listening to live music, doing yoga and playing cornhole. Sharon Hern is here with a friend, she lives in the Bronx and used to take her grandkids to Lasker.

SHARON HERN: This is absolutely beautiful and refreshing. I mean, to imagine that we're standing on this turf right now. Underneath the turf it’s gonna be a pool for the summertime, and then in the wintertime it's gonna be ice skating. This is amazing!

BINFET: Hern says the renovation was much needed.

HERN: My granddaughter used to ice skate and she came out here to ice skate and it was horrible.

BINFET: Nearby, Octavia Blair is sitting on a bench with her 80 year old mother. They’re watching people fish in the Harlem Meer. Blair has lived in the neighborhood for nearly four decades and she agrees the condition of the old rink frustrated her.

OCTAVIA BLAIR: It was crowded, it was deteriorating, we really needed a makeup. We really needed makeup and it’s really beautiful to see that it has come to this. I always wondered why it took so long to get to this end of the park. We used to go to the middle of the park and this end used to be nonexistent but it’s still Central Park, and this is the beginning so it should begin here.    

BINFET: Blair is one of many locals here today who say the old rink was rundown and needed to be renovated. She’s happy with the reconstruction and says it was worth the wait.

BLAIR: It doesn’t have to be so crowded during the summertime with people lining up to get where they need to go. They’ll be able to come and see the pool and the ice hockey because a lot of people that come visit didn’t even know that it exists.

BINFET: But when the city finally stepped in to upgrade Lasker, with a plan to build out an olympic sized pool, and add new rooftop views of the Harlem Meer, there was major pushback. The plan would take years and a sizable group of Harlem residents didn’t want to lose the rink, even temporarily and even if it did have problems. Today the mood is celebratory, but was it all worth it? Adam Kaiser says no.

ADAM KAISER: It completely disrupted the community. Okay, so there is no more ice hockey in Harlem. It's gone. 

BINFET: Kaiser lives on the Upper West Side, he grew up skating at Lasker Rink, and so did his kids. 

KAISER: When you walked into Lasker Rink, you basically knew everyone and everyone there, was there for the same thing because they loved playing hockey. 

BINFET: The rink and pool opened in the early 1960’s and became a hub for Harlem ice hockey. Before the renovation more than fifty youth teams and half a dozen adult divisions skated on the ice. 

KAISER: There were so many youth teams that were there, the Central Park Rangers and the Central Park Hawks, the Buckley School, St. David's, St. Bernard's, the Ice Cats and all these teams played each other and they played visiting teams. And everyone respected each other. It was like a second home.

BINFET: The proposed renovation upset the hockey community in Harlem. A petition was created to save the rink and posted on change.org with almost twelve and half thousand signatures. Kaiser’s was one of them. He says the demolition was soul crushing. 

KAISER: It was a special community, everyone knew each other, everyone was supportive of each other, the players, the coaches, the parents, and it was just a wonderful place and it’s just never gonna be that again. There's a whole generation of kids who will never have had the opportunity to play there and enjoy that, and whatever they do now is just not going to be as good.

BINFET: There used to be two ice rinks at Lasker, today there’s just one. If you read the petition, less space for ice skating was a major concern. It urged the New York City Parks Department, the New York City Council, and even the mayor at the time Bill DeBlasio to reconsider the design.

The city promised it would provide a brand new NHL sized rink without all the previous problems but Kaiser didn’t care, he just wanted to keep playing hockey.

But even he admits the old rinks were in rough shape, he called the place a complete dump. The compressors for the ice were weak, the locker rooms were horrible. And he says the showers reminded him of something you’d see in World War II movies. 

Darlene Lane is general manager of the new Davis Center. She says the renovation was necessary.

DARLENE LANE: The reality is Lasker Rink and Pool was not sustainable. It was closed six months out of the year. That's the first thing.

BINFET: Lasker wasn’t designed to be open year round, it had poor drainage which led to partial flooding during rainy seasons. Lane says thanks to the renovation the new Davis Center will be open all year long.

LANE: And our goal is to make sure that, you know, we are providing something that is year round as you are experiencing right now.   

BINFET: For many, today’s opening means the return of ice hockey in Harlem. At the edge of the lawn dressed in their green and white jerseys are members of the Central Park North Stars. Manhattan’s first ever special needs ice hockey team for adults. Lasker was their home rink, and the renovation forced them out. They’ve been waiting to play here again for five years. Bill Tobias is head coach.

TOBIAS: It’s been a lot harder not being centralized in Manhattan. We’ve lost our home, and we’ve had to travel to Brooklyn to play, and so yes we’re really happy to be back.

BINFET: Do you think that it was worth it? The renovation and the closure?

TOBIAS: I - I don’t know, I think so, Lasker was starting to weather a lot, so yes I think that it was worth it.

BINFET: For Adam Kaiser, who grew up skating at Lasker, the renovation meant the end of his favorite beer league team. He’s hung up his hockey stick and no longer plays. But Tobias and his players are gearing up for their season at the Davis Center rink this fall. Dana Binfet, Columbia Radio News.