Workers have been tilling the soil behind the Novo Park Slope fast and furious these days, cultivating a $1.6 million renovation of Terrapin Playground. Terrapin’s the section of J.J. Byrne Park that Novo developer Shaya Boymelgreen pledged to revamp in exchange for using the park as a staging area during construction. (And which has been the subject of plenty of community acrimony.) Originally, the Parks Dept. said the work—which is supposed to include eight new handball courts, two new basketball courts, a skate area, and a dog run area—would be done by the end of this summer. At some point, that timeline got revised so it was supposed to be completed sometime this fall. Guess what? Now it’s fall, and though it appears that construction workers are kicking into high gear, you gotta be a little skeptical about them delivering on everything that’s promised within the next 90 days. Beyond that, it’s a little troubling to look at the back of the building and imagine that a public park is basically going to be the Novo’s backyard. Sort of like a half-assed, 4th Avenue version of One Brooklyn Bridge Park.
Old Park Slope Says Novo Park Slope is a Deadbeat [Curbed]