Squadron to City: Missing Park Money Must Be Spent Now

March 27, 2012 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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NEW YORK — State Senator Daniel Squadron (D-Downtown Brooklyn/Lower Manhattan) recently urged the city to honor its pledge to North Brooklyn and use the budget process to fully fund the planned Bushwick Inlet Park.

North Brooklyn has long been starved for open, green space. As part of the 2005 rezoning of the Williamsburg and Greenpoint waterfront, the city committed $309 million to develop 28 acres of parkland along the East River, to be known as Bushwick Inlet Park.

However, last year, the city said that it did not have the remaining funding necessary to build the park — leaving more than $100 million for which the city is still responsible. Since last year, Senator Squadron, along with Assemblyman Joseph Lentol and Councilman Stephen Levin, both of whom represent the area, have been urging the city to fulfill its commitment.

In testimony at a hearing last week, Squadron urged the city to honor its pledge and use this budget process to make Bushwick Inlet Park a reality.

“Every community deserves access to open space — and ours is no exception. Seven years later, the 2005 city rezoning has brought thousands of new residents to Greenpoint and Williamsburg. But where is the promised waterfront park?” asked Squadron.

“My district remains starved for open space. Our parks remain immensely overcrowded and poorly underfunded,” said Lentol. “With the 2005 rezoning one the most crucial commitments made to me, made to the neighborhoods I represent, made to the people who have bought the newly rezoned in good faith, was that the city would buy and build more open space. This commitment was an absolutely critical piece to the 2005 rezoning and one that each and every one of us relied upon.”