PROSPECT HEIGHTS — The Flatbush Avenue triangles may finally get a touch-up.
More than a decade after a neighborhood business group first pushed to spruce up the triangular parks along Flatbush Avenue between Prospect Heights and Park Slope, the city has set aside money to reconstruct the public spaces, the mayor’s office announced this week.
Intersections with Sixth Avenue, Carlton Avenue, Seventh Avenue and Eighth Avenue on the avenue are set to get new signage, greenery and renovated curb extensions as part of $115 million in capital funding set aside for the Department of Transportation this year, the agency and mayor’s office said.
The money is part of the city’s $82.1 billion budget, announced by Mayor Bill de Blasio Thursday, which will go before the City Council for approval this spring.
The “North Flatbush” reconstruction project, as the city named the effort, is the result of years of work by the North Flatbush Business Improvement District to improve the “triangle parks,” originally built in 1973, with safety improvements, benches, plantings and bike racks, said BID president Regina Cahill.
“We want to make them pedestrian-friendly and provide respites for people,” she said.
The BID started its quest to improve the tiny public spaces back in 2005 and has slowly gathered close to $2 million in funding from local elected officials, Cahill said. Then in 2010, the DOT put together an official proposal for the reconstruction.
Work on the project was supposed to start last spring, but stalled when the designated contractor filed for bankruptcy, Cahill said. But, now, she thinks the new funds are a step in the right direction.
“It’s a nice validation that we’re doing the right thing,” she said of the mayor’s budget announcement. “Anything that moves this along and gets it done is fine with me because it’s been a long time coming.”
Approximately $4.2 million has been allocated in the proposed capital budget for the North Flatbush project; all funding must be approved by the City Council before construction moves forward.
