Raise a Racket at the New Public Squash Court at Lower East Side's Hamilton Fish Park

A rendering of the squash court at Hamilton Fish Recreation Center.
A rendering of the squash court at Hamilton Fish Recreation Center.

Historic Lower East Side park Hamilton Fish Park is getting a renovation as one of its two handball courts will be converted into a state-of-the art, outdoor squash court.

Dubbed "the healthiest sport", as players can burn more than 800 calories an hour, squash courts are a rarity in New York City.

Outside of college students and the wealthy in America, most people don’t have access to squash courts anywhere (or don’t know that they do). Alex Wakefield Wessner, Shawn Dragann, and Ryan Underwood Wall, founders of the Public Squash Foundation (PSF), wanted to change that. Last year they pitched the Department of Parks and Recreation on their idea: building a squash court on one of the city’s more than 2,000 handball courts, many of which are underutilized.

Raising more than $70,000 for their first venture, the Public Squash Foundation hopes to expand on their project, already receiving requests from cities including Philadelphia, LA, and Paris. The court is 100 percent public, with no booking systems. Anyone who brings their own equipment can play for free. Read the full article for more on the PSF's efforts.

via Bloomberg

Joshua Mu

Joshua Mu

Contributing Writer

When he is not attempting to hustle the hustlers of Central Park, Joshua enjoys exploring the depths of what New York has to offer. He one day hopes to pilot a drone without immediately crashing it.

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