PROSPECT PARK — A new project from the Prospect Park Alliance may make a walk in the park a bit easier — and the group wants residents to help make it happen, they said.
The alliance is hoping to build two new entrances into Prospect Park from Flatbush Avenue, part of a larger effort to spruce up the area between Grand Army Plaza and Empire Boulevard bordering the Prospect Park Zoo, a spokesman from the group said.
“The northeast section of the park is an area that we’re looking to improve in the future,” said Matt Ojala, Director of Government and Community Relations for the PPA. “By putting more entrances, we can get more people to stop by.”
The group is hoping to fund the project through the Parks Without Borders initiative, a recent $50 million effort by the mayor to make public parks more accessible.
Improvements on Flatbush Avenue near the park are already in the works with $2.4 million in funding from Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo to improve pedestrian walkways, plant street trees and add new fencing.
But the alliance hopes to get additional money from Parks Without Borders to build two new entrances between Grand Army Plaza and the zoo and to refurbish the existing “Willink Entrance” at Flatbush Avenue and Empire Boulevard.
To do that, the group is asking residents of the park’s east side — in Crown Heights, Prospect Heights and Prospect-Lefferts Gardens — to write to the Parks Department through an online portal for the “Borders” initiative to give the Flatbush Avenue project their virtual vote.
“We hope that lovers of Prospect Park will support it,” Ojala said.
Those who want to back the project online can add their comments to the “Suggest Improvements” map on the Parks Department website or by filling out this form created by Parks4Us, a local parks advocacy group, which links directly to the city's site.
The alliance has step-by-step instructions on their website on how to support the project, and even provides a sample text for backers imploring the city to “open up a vital perimeter of the Park that has historically been difficult to access for residents and neighbors in communities bordering the Park.”
The Parks Department is taking feedback for the Parks Without Borders initiative through the end of February, the agency said. Proposals chosen to receive funding will be announced this spring.
