BBP is for Everyone

By on August 10, 2007 10:36 am in News

The Daily News covers the latest in the BBP saga, interviewing Marianna Koval, executive director of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy: 

NY Daily News: Conservancy Director Leads…: When completed in an expected four or five years, Brooklyn Bridge Park will cover just more than 85 acres. It will be the largest section of public space dedicated to parkland in Brooklyn since Prospect Park was created 135 years ago.

What may be a temporary park feature has made a big splash. The Floating Pool Lady, a pool in a barge first conceived by Ann Buttenwieser and the Neptune Foundation, is anchored between the piers next to an artificial beach the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy created at the foot of Joralemon St.

The pool has drawn more than 40,000 people from around the city to the park since it opened on July 4, Koval said.

"We have people coming here from Manhattan, Staten Island, Queens, even the Bronx," said Koval, her hair still wet from a morning dip in the pool. "We said all along that this would be a park for the city, not just for Brooklyn Heights and Brooklyn. It's the first time in 200 years that the public has had access to these piers."

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  • JamieP

    but they’re going to put a marina in that spot? because we like 40 of our riches to be happy instead of 40,000

  • KeithB

    The only people who still care about the BBP are the condo developers who are going to pocket hundreds of millions of dollars, those who have been bought off with contributions from the developers and those too oblivious to see what is going on.
    The concept of a sub-80 acre park that requires a $15mm annual operating budget is fundamentally absurd. It is a real shame that this project was hijacked by the developers.

  • steve

    It is amazing that this Daily News item fails to mention the ongoing controversy and litigation surrounding the new “park.” The Web site of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Defense Fund (http://www.parkdefense.org/) has links to all of the important court filings. Also, if you go to the section on the lawsuit and click the link to PDFs of lawsuit documents, you will be able to read a very revealing letter written by the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy to mayor’s office in which the Conservancy itself criticized what it described as some very serious failings of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation. I would encourage readers who have not already done so to check out the Park Defense Fund’s latest filing, the brief in the Appellate Division, as well as the Sierra Club’s amicus brief in support of the Park Defense Fund’s suit.

  • Fred

    only in new york could people be complaining so bitterly about a new park. i suppose it is the fear of outsiders coming through that has locals upset. but some of the nicest neighborhoods in the city are next to parks. I don’t get it.

  • steve

    Fred: Those who are complaining about this particular project are not necessarily opposed to a water-front park. What is objectionable is the notion that private luxury housing must be included within the public space, to offset the future cost of maintaining a park. There is a long history to this bitter dispute, and as I mentioned in my last comment, you can read all about it at http://www.parkdefense.org/. You can also check out the many articles and editorials in The Brooklyn Paper dealing with this subject. (http://www.brooklynpaper.com/). It is simply wrong to conclude that “fear of outsiders” is what has Brooklyn Heights residents bent out of shape.

  • Bklyn Native

    I’ve always wondered why the BBP has to be self-sustaining using private sector funds. Don’t we all pay taxes to the Federal, State, and City government for the ongoing upkeep of our parks?

    How many other parks are “forced” to build luxury housing in the middle of the park so that the park’s maintenance will be self-sustaining?

    Prospect and Central would never have been built if they had to be self-sustaining outside of the local tax base. Where does this concept of self-sustaining parks using private funds come from? Sounds suspiciously like “compassionate” conservatism.

  • http://deleted bh

    Bravo Bklyn native! This whole self sustaining thing is exactly that – compassionate conservatism. Thanks to the Brooklyn Heights Association and the condo-promoting “Conservancy”, we now have landscaping for condos in what was to have been a wonderful park with pools, ice skating rink, field house, skateboarding, etc. Parks build up neighborhoods – more highrise luxury condos just consume usable air. Too bad. Write to your politicians to complain or simply vote Connor and Millman and Yassky and DeBlasio out of office.