The asphalt lot in McCarren Park is getting a much needed facelift.
North Brooklyn elected officials and community members gathered yesterday afternoon to celebrate the $14.7 million in funding allocated towards the new project, secured with the help of City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, Senator Kristen Gonzalez and Council Member Lincoln Restler in partnership with Assemblymember Emily Gallagher and Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez.
The funding will be put towards repurposing the lot into another green space, with portions used for a dog run, pickleball courts, and additional space to be used by tennis players. As chronic flooding frequently plagues the area, the new park space will include catch basins and new pipes to divert water into a sub-surface retention tank.
The city’s Department of Environmental Protection, as well as the Parks department (who owns the lot) will facilitate the project. The DEP has also committed to add stormwater retention under the nearby greenmarket space on Union. Restler told the crowd that the two projects would contain up to 200,000 gallons of water during an extreme weather event.
“People in our community who are fearful about flooding destroying their homes, making our neighborhood uninhabitable, now have a real path forward to safety and sustainability,” Restler said.
Many community groups and park-goers will benefit from the new space, but as we know, good things often take time, and this project is no exception. The projected end date is 2029; relatively speedy, in city bureaucracy terms.
What about the asphalt softball field at N 12th Street across the street from The Turkey’s Nest? Will that remain; or, will it be eliminated? Why the need for another dog run? The one on Driggs Ave. is more than adequate. Besides, people let their hounds run through the main park anyway.
Agreed, no need for a dog run, but pickleball courts are nice
What about the softball that gets played here?!
Clean up the playground from glass, syringes and trash. Make it a safe and fun area for kids to play
I have lived in this area for more than +50 years and right next to this part of the park and I have never witnessed any flooding problems. The fix is in !
It’s a FEMA designated high risk flood zone.
There are already 3x huge (real, not asphalt) softball fields. Which occupy a tremendous amount of park space. Anyone promoting an asphalt softball field is just doing it because they have some incentive and not thinking about this from a community perspective. A functioning dog park is absolutely the most important amenity. The small dog park on driggs is a cesspool of repeat lepto outbreaks. If the city wanted to renovate and fix that one, fix the drainage, and extend it so dogs could actually run, then yeah, that’d work as well. But as is, there’s no way. There’s also no designated volleyball, pickleball, etc. Just install lights on the other 2 grass (ie barren, compact dirt, unmaintained) fields.
Soooo… My requests for permission to install nice new basketball rims on my own dime weren’t responded to… but somehow $14 million for more tennis courts and for a pickleball fad that is already fading, and will certainly be long over before this project is complete was approved?
I am confused… May I replace the basketball rims that were removed? The backboards are still there, I’ll pay for it myself like I’ve said…
Pickleball fad that is fading? Check some stats. For the 4th consecutive year, it is the fastest growing sport with 20 to 30 something’s being the fastest growing segment. Colleges are starting to give scholarships, pros are making multi millions of dollars and communities are collectively spending hundreds of millions and receiving the benefits in return (health of community, tournament $, local business ⬆️ etc).
^ triggered pickleball noises
the Parks Department should be ashamed of themselves.