Gravel at Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 1 – Good?

By on August 13, 2010 5:36 pm in Brooklyn Heights

They’ve laid down some gravel over the blacktop on pathways at Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 1.  TK Small mentioned it earlier in the week and brought up the fact that it could pose a challenge for strollers and those in unpowered wheelchairs.  We found it to be a little tough on our tender feet – even in Doc Martens.  How about you?

Share this Story:

,

←  Older Comments
Newer Comments  →
  • T.K. Small

    I just finished writing a comment, but unfortunately I am upstate and my pirated signal is quite weak and I lost everything. Suffice it to say, I very much appreciate that so many people referenced me directly. Thank you everyone!

    Although I have a great deal of work to do on Monday, I will be heading down to Pier 1 to investigate. Rolling on any smooth surface is much easier and lends much more of a sense of freedom in movement. Even if all of the loose gravel is removed, the remaining service will create a constant jostling. Thank you inconsiderate park designers.

  • Meaghin

    This was a complete surprise to me when my husband and I went down to the Pier for a run. Horrible idea–hard to run on and unattractive….

  • B Mack

    These designs are another example of elite snobbery – as observed by several writers some one obviously went to Europe – free trip I imagine – and tried to figure out how to justify the expense. Why can’t these fools come back with some of the better designs – always something cheap, ugly, and awful. This is just like that awful East River State Park – the geniuses cut down beautiful poplar trees which were growing naturally for years – replanted with some kind of out of place trees on the hottest day of the summer (last year) only to have the trees die and required to be replanted (who had a cousin in the nursery business?) Again, the motto of NYC should be City of Fools

  • AEB

    Gravel is a noise pollutant…..

  • brooklynheightzer

    Off topic – how about this dirty, still water pond – a mosquito breeding ground (I guess I should say water). What is this doing there? I suppose it is intended to spread the West Nile virus.

  • yourmom

    I like the gravel. The only real downside is the disabled access issue. Its unfortunate that it makes enjoyment of the park harder for this population. As for runners, bikers, and rollerbladers, you all make my enjoyment of the park as a peaceful place to stroll and lounge less, so i say its good the gravel makes it harder for you. Run, bike, and rollerblade elsewhere.
    Dog owners: your dogs are not meant to walk on concrete, the are meant for the changing surface of the earth. The challenge of walking on an unstable surface is good for them (us to actually).
    Parents, excepting those children who are pre-walking age, this is a great opportunity to leave the stroller at home and make you children walk more. The spend too much time in the stroller as it is, and it makes them lazy, and misshapes their bodies.

  • Monty

    @yourmom, re:strollers, if you had a baby, you would know that walking is not always an option. There is no way I would want my child out of her seat attempting to cross furman st with the cars coming off the BQE and around a blind corner. Not to mention all of the equipment we have to carry. Not to mention that wheeling her around pier 1 had been my new preferred way to get her to nap. That being said, I am hopeful that bkre is correct and the finished product will be much better. I am hopeful that in a few years time when the trees have grown and the park maintainers have finished the spit and polish, this will be an absolutely awesome park.

  • bklyn20

    Actually, as of 2 days ago, the gravel on PIer 6’s walkways was still pretty loose — I was wondering if more had just been put on.

    Did the people dictating/managing the park’s evolution ever consider signage to explain the change in the surfaces? Must everyone have to research the park, er, development project online to know what’s going on?

    I think this is what is called top-down mismanagement.,

  • jorale-man

    This is off-topic as well, but what gives with the brown grass in the center of the lawns too? They seem so diligent about watering the lawns and plants every day, I wonder how that happened?

    These quibbles aside it’s still an excellent addition to the area and hopefully will only get better with time as the other sections are built.

  • Pim

    I went there today and noticed the gravel. I think it looks fine, and much better for the heat than the asphalt.

    And come to think of it, biking & skating aren’t permitted in the park, so it serves as a great deterent for people who think rules don’t apply to them.

    A lot of you seem like whiners who would have something to complain about regardless of what they did to the park.

  • bklyn20

    As of last night, I have been seeing signs on lampposts around our neighborhood saying ” Don’t like the gravel in Brooklyn Bridge Park? Call 311!” or something very like that. That’s an idea for the “whiners,” which I think would include me right now.

  • Obama?

    I believe we “whiners” are justified in our complaints, as this is a publicly-funded project we’re paying for though out hard-earned taxes!

    Is there a website or other means by which we can make suggestions/critiques about our park before such controversial things are done there?

  • ABC

    given the epidemic of childhood obesity, I always find it encouraging that I see very few kids in this area with “misshapen” bodies.

    but I would invite YourMom to come over and take my kids out. I have two who certainly can and do walk. it would take about 35 minutes for them to walk down there and it’s hard with two to control at every light (especially the 18-month-old). plus, you’ll need to carry diapers and wipes and a changing pad. we spend about an hour there and then you’ll need to get to the store on the way home. we usually go to Sahadi’s so — with kids on foot — that will take about 90 minutes and on the way home you’ll have bags in your hands. that will slow you down considerably and will get dicey since you need to hold hands of both kids when you cross the streets, but I’m sure you can figure it out.

    with the “pre-walkers” you mention, you’ll be carrying the child for much of that trip as well

    so the daily trip to the playground and a quick stop at the store will take about 4 hours or so. come anytime.

  • Ben

    Today I tripped again on the gravel and if i fall down and hurt myself and become even more physically disabled than I am right now I plan to sue NYC and get a big $ettlement for my pain and $uffering — maybe I could get the esteemed T. K. Small, Esq. to represent me?

    BUT I would rather NOT fall, place scrape all of the gravel off and do something else.

  • Ben

    Did anyone see the beautiful apt. at One Brooklyn Bridge Park on HGTV today?

    Yes it is a spectacular apartment but that is NOT Brooklyn Heights it is so disconected from the Heights.

    Maybe Brooklyn Bridge Park should become a neighborhood itself with its own comercial strip like Roosevelt Island? Get a Tram to take y’all to the subway, Montague Street, etc.

    I cannot imagine living at One Brooklyn Bridge park escpecially a family with children.

  • Ben

    ABC,

    With kids in tow your fun trip to the new park sounds like HELL stay home arrange playdates in the local neighborhood at the park on Verandah Place and others.

    Or call Promenade Car Service have them send you a Lincoln Town Car with A/C drop you at the park and make it a “round-robin” have them schedulaed to pick y’all up at the Ice Cream Hut when its time to go home for dinner, stop at Lassen & Hennings to pick up supper.

    Or have the driver drop you and the kids at the Heights Casino for dinner that would be nice.

    Its a good life here in the Heights the problem is just getting around, cracked sidewalks, pot-holes, sink-holes, *ssholes, but all in all its a great place to live!

    B

  • ABC

    Ben, I was replying to YourMom who said I should leave the stroller at home. WITH a stroller, all those walks take 10-15 minutes and I can take my kids to the playground, to the store, and by home by 10:30.

    Did the food at the casino improve? Now THERE is some news!

  • bklyn20

    Obama? and friends, to help get a real park instead of more of a condopark, contact your State Senator (Daniel Squadron), your State Assemblywoman (Joan Millman), and maybe Marty Markowitz — although he’s pretty much drunk the Kool-Aid on the condopark idea. You can also go to http://www.parkdefense.org, for The Brooklyn Bridge Park Defense Fund, but the site is being overhauled now so it isn’t as full of valuable info as it usually is.

    ABOVE ALL, VOTE FOR CANDIDATES WHO WANT A REAL PARK IN THE SEPTEMBER ELECTIONS! (Sept 14, I think) Encourage your friends to do the same thing. Brooklytn voted out the man who slimed in the condopark PILOT legislation, Marty Connor, and we have to keep electing people who want a real park. So vote and use your vote wisely!

  • http://bivforbrooklyn.com Doug Biviano for Assembly

    See Doug’s letter to the Brooklyn Paper:

    http://bivforbrooklyn.com/blog/108-get-the-brooklyn-bridge-park-done-now

    Doug Biviano is for a real Brooklyn Bridge Park and it being done before the next generation of kids in the neighborhood go to college. The luxury condo development model has complicated the project, bloated costs from $100 million to $350 million and resulted in delaying the park indefinitely with uncertain phases.

  • Andrew Porter

    I was there today and noticed the gravel; instead of being a quiet inert surface, it was crunchy and load.

    However, I was thinking with the amount of sun and lack of rain this summer, gravel will reflect much more solar energy and not warm the ground as much. This is better for the plants.

    I also took a good look at the pond, noticing that it is not an inert body of water. There is water leaving the ponds and running off into the salt water marsh area, which leads me to assume that fresh water is coming into the pond from somewhere. I would also not be surprised if there are small fish here, which eat mosquito larvae. There are certainly dragonflies there now; they’re voracious insectivores.

  • Andrew Porter

    loud, not load…

  • yourmom

    abc,
    Breeding was your choice. I have zero interest in taking your kids out. If its such a hassle to get them around from place to place, well you should have thought about that before having them. Or move some where else, or take a cab there, as someone else suggested. Or just push the stroller over the gravel and suffer a bit of inconvenience. Seems like you want someone else to take responsibility for your choices. Push the stroller, or make a day of it; honestly I doubt you would be happy at all.

  • yourmom

    monty,
    really? people didn’t get around with their kids for thousands of years by walking, doing their best to avoid perils? Also, they didn’t need all that crap you carry. Perhaps you and your kids need less than you think.

  • Monty

    @yourmom, call me when you live in a tree and don’t have a computer to post smarmy comments on the internet at 2am before telling me I don’t need a stroller.

  • Big Dave

    Wow! Just spent about ten minutes reading all the posts. I believe the ponds are part of the irrigation system. Note the ecosystem that is being created from nothing — it is a well-thought-out piece of landscape architecture. The gravel is getting compacted; it hey are going to sweep off the loose bits, it will be fine [I do wonder why it wasn’t roller compacted upon application]. I am interested to see when the paths to the spiral pool will be open to everyone, not just kayakers. Oh! And Doug B., those 3 story berms are going to be welcome sound barriers for the park against BQE noise. I believe ballfields are scheduled for one of the remaining piers.

  • yourmom

    monty, the difference between me and you is that I don’t get on here and complain about how hard life is. its was your choice to have children, therefor, you choose a life that is full of inconveniences as well as blessings. you have to take both. the disabled folk, they have every right to be upset and complain, they didn’t choose to be that way. you did choose.

  • Obama?

    yourmom,

    You sound angry & very anti-child. You may want to rethink things, I hope.

  • yourmom

    i am not angry, or anti child. i am simply anti entitled parent. “it you only had a child, you would know…”, is both condescending and entitled.

  • ABC

    yourmom, you came out swinging. you don’t like bike or dogs and strollers make kids lazy. okaaaaaaaaay.

    kids grow up here without cars. we walk everywhere. when we have more than a few blocks to go, we use a stroller. it’s no issue at all in the city — until people start putting gravel on brand new paved paths.

    the playground inside that park was designed for toddlers. 9 out of 10 kids get there in a stroller. it was just poor planning.

    but, honestly, I could give a crap about you so moving on.

    how do they plan to plow this when it snows I wonder?

  • eg

    I went to Pier 1 yesterday, and was appalled at the graveled paths. I am disabled and use a rolling walker and found it a great struggle to walk very far. A very bad plan, indeed. I will not be able to use that park again, until it’s changed

    As for for entitlements, the law says that all PUBLIC places must accommodate disabled persons. A park is for everyone to enjoy and use, and paths that can’t be used by wheeled vehicles don’t belong there; that would certainly include children ‘s carriages.

    So, “yourmom”, I’m sure your mother pushed you in a carriage and appreciated a good road. You’re very short-sighted.

←  Older Comments
Newer Comments  →