“BROOKLYN COMMUNITY BOARD 9 RESOLUTION PRESERVE GREEN SPACE IN MOUNT PROSPECT PARK AND
OPPOSE BUILDING A PAVED SKATE COMPLEX ON URBAN GREEN PARK SPACE” (voted June 24, 2024)
https://www.nyc.gov/assets/brooklyncb9/downloads/pdf/2024/CB9MountProspectParkResolution.pdf
PRESS RELEASE
Community Board Votes Against Paved Skate Facility in Mount Prospect Park
Resolution “to preserve green space in Mount Prospect Park and oppose building a paved skate complex on urban green park space” urges officials to use already paved space.
Brooklyn, NY (June 25, 2024) – Declaring that “Community Board 9 believes it is bad public policy to convert green space to concrete skate space,” the local board Monday night passed a detailed resolution opposing paving a skate facility in Mount Prospect Park – and welcoming such a facility on already-paved space. The 25-provision resolution takes into account factors like climate resiliency priorities and safety, and notes that officials “have produced no analysis of the economic, environmental and health impacts of substituting a single use paved complex for multi-use free public green space.” The resolution also highlights the “opaque site selection process whereby [the City and the Parks Department] have not solicited public input into choosing Mount Prospect Park as the location for a skate facility nor have they explained why there are no already-paved alternative locations available in Crown Heights, Prospect Heights or Park Slope.”
“The resolution underscores how siting this facility on green park space would damage the community,” said Hayley Gorenberg, who helped found Friends of Mount Prospect Park, with a mission to protect and enhance green space. ”Brooklynites need free, flexible green space to play and relax. We just sweltered through an early heat wave, we keep breaking heat records – and paving amplifies heat. When it rains we see spectacular local flooding – and paving green space worsens that problem, too. We have to treasure and improve our urban green spaces, not pave over them.”
“Officials utterly failed to consult the community about siting a paved skate complex on our neighborhood park. That's not right, and it has never made sense,” said Isabelle Broyer, President of the Cultural Row Block Association. “The community board made the effort to examine the situation and pass a resolution to show the way to safeguard everyone.”
“The area is already jammed with attractions and activities,” said Cheryl Faust, who, with her husband, a disabled veteran, has lived for more than 40 years in Prospect Heights, near the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and Prospect Park – with its skate spaces, bandshell, and roster of events. “Using millions of dollars of public money to cram another tourist attraction on the block doesn't make sense.”
The Mount Prospect Park site is the only green park area fixed upon by the Mayor and the Parks and Recreation Department for a four-location blitz purporting to make New York City the “Skate Capital of the East Coast” by installing paved skate facilities. The only other Brooklyn location in the plan, Brower Park, is directly adjacent to Prospect Heights – in Crown Heights. Meanwhile, nearby fully paved skate spaces have few features and little upkeep.
Additional resources:
Community Board 9 resolution “to preserve green space in Mount Prospect Park and oppose building a paved skate complex on urban green park space”
Community Comments
https://www.friendsofmountprospectpark.org/community-comments-submitted-to-parks-department
Officials’ Green Climate Pledges
https://www.friendsofmountprospectpark.org/officials-green-climate-pledges
Contact:
Friends of Mount Prospect Park