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August 23, 2007
What's up With the Abandoned Third Avenue Playground?
Is the Wrong Side of the Tracks Under the Tracks Playground on Third Avenue between 9th and 10th streets the saddest public park in all of New York City? The asphalt-only “park” sits below the bucolic F Train tracks and is completely locked up. Would-be users probably aren't missing much, though, as the facility is made up of a few handball courts in various stages of disrepair. According to Small Town Brooklyn, it’s been out of commission since 2002, but the Park Department’s website lists routine inspections for it as though it were fully operational. Given the Bloomberg administration’s stated goal of having every New Yorker within a 10-minute walk of a park space and the development frenzy on Fourth Avenue—which is going to bring plenty of new residents to the area—it’ll be interesting to see whether this one gets a facelift.
Parks, Playgrounds & Waterfront Restoration [Small Town Brooklyn]
Under the Tracks Playground [nycgovparks]
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Comments
If you looked up you would see that it is not the BQE overhead, but the F train. Thus the name "Under the Tracks."
Posted by: guest at August 23, 2007 9:43 AM
Debris falls from the F train....be tough to have a park...This site in on 10th Street between 2nd and 3rd.... there is also a park on 11th between 2nd and 3rd.
This site currently is used as a dumping ground at the edge of it on 2nd avenue.
Posted by: guest at August 23, 2007 9:49 AM
If you look at the black rubber matting with bolts it it, the concrete on that viaduct is crumbling, and the viaduct is scheduled for repair. They probably are going to use it as a staging area and/or don't want chunks of cement hitting the kiddies.
Posted by: guest at August 23, 2007 9:49 AM
It is a sad playground but the rats love it. I've seen a few almost cat sized ones near there. What does one do if the rats they're trying to exterminating get that big? They definitely won't fit in the entry hole of a bait station...
Posted by: guest at August 23, 2007 11:00 AM
I wish they would do something about that horrible F train overpass. The bridge or whatever you call it is ugly as hell. It looks like something from a third world contry. It can't possibly be any uglier.
I am embarressed when I have people visiting from out of town. I can see the look of disgust on their face when they see that atrocious black bridge rising from the ground in all its glory.
Posted by: guest at August 23, 2007 12:46 PM
Actually I grew up in Park Slope and my babysitter lived right across the street from that park. I remember playing there and it always look abandoned. There used to be glass on the ground from like cars and bottles. We were always the only kids there playing.
Posted by: guest at August 23, 2007 1:05 PM
We used to play stickball there in the mid-80's. The place was always empty, as 1:05 remembers. They closed it when the renovation on the bridgework began.
But, no, the Saddest Playground Award should go to Squibb Hill Playground in Bklyn Heights. What is going on there?
Posted by: guest at August 23, 2007 2:14 PM
2:14, Squibb is in limbo. The Department of Parks and Recreation doesn't want to sink any money into it because it might become an entrance to Brooklyn Bridge Park.
As for Under the Tracks, renovation is unlikely until after the Culver Viaduct reconstruction, scheduled to begin August '08 through 2012.
Posted by: g man at August 23, 2007 4:00 PM
The little crumb-snatchers don't trust that fiber-wrap around the concrete bridge that's supposed to protect against falling debris.
Posted by: guest at August 23, 2007 4:23 PM
Another beautiful corner of Park Slope.
Posted by: guest at August 23, 2007 5:47 PM
3rd Avenue and 10th St. is not Park Slope. That is until they put in a nice restaurant there. Then it will be Park Slope.
Posted by: guest at August 24, 2007 9:12 AM
A branch of Bar Toto, the 6th Avenue restaurant, is going in across the steet from this park, on the near corner of 9th and Third Avenue next to Lemurplex. So I guess this will be the Slope yet...
Posted by: guest at August 24, 2007 11:56 AM
I live on this quite block for few years and unfortuntlany it becoming the slop with many new buyers replacing old timers.
The city should make it into a nice flea-market other than parks
Posted by: guest at August 24, 2007 12:59 PM
"unfortuntlany it becoming the slop"
That block looks like it's been "the slop" for years now. To quote Bette Davis, "What a dump."
Posted by: guest at August 25, 2007 12:37 PM
11:56am - i was wondering what was going to open on the corner of 9th and 3rd. interior looks nice but doesn't really fit in gowanus - it ain't the slope...yet [which is a good thing!]. the original bar toto is ok, so it'll be interesting to see what happens with this. as long as it doesn't put sonia's out of business!
i've lived between 10th/11th for the past 5 years - the netting and rubber mats on the f train bridge have been there for at least that long. that whole strip of MTA property on 10th strip is just a sad dumping ground, despite the "please don't dump here, we love our neighbhorhood signs!" i'm amazed at the size of the dog/human shit piles that accumulate there weekly.
Posted by: guest at August 27, 2007 2:44 PM
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