PROSPECT-LEFFERTS GARDENS — New lighting, benches, fence repairs and an improved sidewalk are slated for one of Brooklyn’s longest blocks.
Ocean Avenue between Lincoln Road and Parkside Avenue — a roughly 7-block long stretch adjacent to Prospect Park in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens — is receiving the upgrades thanks to a recent $1.75 million allocation from the city, elected officials and parks advocates said.
The funds, secured by Councilman Mathieu Eugene and Borough President Eric Adams, will make it possible to restore the western, park-adjacent side of the avenue, where stumped trees, cracked concrete, rough cobblestones and overgrown tree roots have concerned residents for years, according to advocates of the project and the Prospect Park Alliance
“The sidewalk is impossible if you’re on any kind of wheels,” said Stanley Greenberg, a member of the Ocean by the Park Tree Club, a group of volunteers who care for trees on the avenue and have pushed for funding to make improvements to the block.
The group has put in lots of work into sprucing up the street in recent years, composting and mulching existing trees, planting flowers and pushing for the city to plant saplings in empty tree beds.
But Amy Musick, the founder of Ocean by the Park, said there was only so much they could do themselves and turned to Eugene “to show us the capital funding.”
“Sweat equity — we poured it as much as we could and now it’s really about dollars," she said. "And they heard that."
The Council approved the $1.75 million for the project in mid-June, with $1 million from Adams and $750,000 from Eugene, according to council budget records and the borough president's office.
In a statement, Adams said the current condition of Ocean Avenue is part of the "tale of two Prospect Parks," with "a comparative lack of investment and care versus its western counterpart" on the Park Slope side of the park.
"This funding for improvements to Ocean Avenue will help ensure one of our borough’s leading crown jewels shines just as brightly form east to west," he said.
Musick said she’s “really thankful” to the project’s backers, and Greenberg said he’s “thrilled.”
But it may be a few more years before residents see the results of the park perimeter clean-up. Following a design and procurement process, construction may not begin until 2018.
But even with the long wait, local parks advocates are happy to see the first step. Seth Kaplan, a Prospect-Lefferts Gardens resident and founder of Parks4Us who advocated with Ocean on the Park for the changes, cheered the “extensive” restoration.
“This is your welcome, your first image of Prospect Park as you enter,” he said. “And it’s now going to be as beautiful on the outside as it is on the inside.”
