Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Fort Greene Park Wins $5M to Revamp Myrtle Avenue Side

 Fort Greene Park has won $5 million to revamp its Myrtle Avenue side from the Parks Without Borders program.
Fort Greene Park has won $5 million to revamp its Myrtle Avenue side from the Parks Without Borders program.
View Full Caption
Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership

BROOKLYN — Fort Greene Park’s Myrtle Avenue side will be getting a makeover thanks to $5 million in city funding.

The park was one of eight in the city selected to receive a cut of $40 million under the Parks Department’s Parks Without Borders program.

“Fort Greene is a beloved, historic space, and deservedly so," Parks Department Commissioner Mitchell Silver said. "Thanks to Parks Without Borders, we will now activate the vital areas that welcome the community into the park by focusing on the plazas along the park’s northern edge and entrances."

The Fort Greene Park Conservancy will be working with the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership in planning the project, which will require community approval.

While specific improvements have not yet been determined, the Conservancy proposed adding fitness equipment, increasing lighting and fixing up eroded sidewalks along Myrtle Avenue at a February Community Board 2 meeting

Renovations would also improve park access for seniors, said Meredith Phillips Almeida, executive director of MABP, in a statement.

“Capital improvements along the Myrtle side of Fort Greene Park are long overdue, especially for our seniors," Phillips Almeida said. "As an Age-Friendly Neighborhood, we look forward to working with partners and residents to ensure that pathways and amenities are safe and accessible to our older adult neighbors."

Julian Macrone, the park’s programming and development coordinator, said in February that the northwest corner was meant to be the park’s main entrance, leading to the steps of the historic Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument.

But that corner hasn’t seen capital improvements from the Parks Department since the 1930s.

A revamp could make the entrance a more formal gathering space that could include an ice skating rink in the colder months, Macrone said in February.

The Parks Without Borders program launched last November and called on residents to nominate parks for the funding. 

Residents picked 691 parks with more than 6,000 votes, officials said. 

Fort Greene Park received the second most votes out of any park in Brooklyn with 194 votes, behind Prospect Park, which received 965 votes. 

It will share the $40 million in funding with Flushing Meadows-Corona, Prospect, Faber, Van Cortlandt, Jackie Robinson, Seward and Hugh Grant Circle/Virginia parks.