Terrapin Park Still Far From Complete
We haven’t been all that impressed with progress on Terrapin Playground, the section of J.J. Byrne Park that Novo developer Shaya Boymelgreen pledged to revamp in exchange for using the public park as a staging area during the Novo’s construction. The playground, which is supposed to include eight new handball courts, two new basketball courts,…
We haven’t been all that impressed with progress on Terrapin Playground, the section of J.J. Byrne Park that Novo developer Shaya Boymelgreen pledged to revamp in exchange for using the public park as a staging area during the Novo’s construction. The playground, which is supposed to include eight new handball courts, two new basketball courts, a skate area, and a dog run area, was originally slated to be completed this summer, then this fall, and now—who knows? Not the Parks Dept., anyway. A Parks rep told us they “don’t have a new estimated date of completion but we’re still working with them and monitoring their progress. While the original goal was to have it completed in 2007, there were some unforeseen complications involving the park’s plumbing and drainage system. They’re working to resolve that but during the winter, construction work often becomes weather dependent.”
What’s the ETA on Boymelgreen Park? [Brownstoner] GMAP
1:46 – again we don’t know WHAT the agreement w/ Boylemgreen was but you ignore the part of the cited article where the community says:
“Members of Park Slope’s community board want the city to prevent tenants from occupying one of real-estate mogul Shaya Boymelgreen’s new Fourth Avenue buildings until he fulfills his promise to repair a local park damaged during construction.
Even though the promised repairs began on Monday, locals are asking the city to make sure they’re completed before Boymelgreen’s NOVO condo residents can move in.”
Since no one has moved in, it appears that the community should be satisfied
If Boylemgreen is violating his agreement with the city —(how about some quasi real reporting Gabby and find out for real!) then the city should take enforcement action
BUT people should at least be honest
except for 2 handball courts, the area of the park that Boymelgreen co-oped was basically unusable (and basically unused) PRIOR to any deal with Boylegreen.
This section was essentially on big pot-holed and cracked parking lot with a baseball diamond painted on it.
Who are all these commentators so upset that someone dares point out that a developer didn’t live up to his promises? The arguments put forth “Gabby is anti development” or “when did Slopers care about 4th Avenue” are nonsensical.
I have to imagine that those commentators are in so way involved with NOVO, Boymelgreen, or some other disreputable developer.
BTW, spokesmen for Boymelgreen originally said the park would be done by then end of summer 2007. See this article from The Brooklyn Paper: http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/30/24/30_24shayapark.html
Sometimes I think Gabby’s mandate from Brownstoner is to “spice up” the blog with posts she/he knows will rile people up and make for long threads.
Without commenting on the “deal” between the City and Boymelgreen my comment is:
Why so much paved space in Terrapin and Burne?!
Out of a full city block of park space (minus the land the school sits on) there is one lame patch of grass in front of Stone House and already 3 handball courts and a paved area.
Why more handball courts and paved space when we could have had a real park with … GRASS!
You can call the “deal” a failure but the real failure is lack of urban planning in the way the park was re-developed.
Slopers to Boymelgreen: ‘we don’t like your building…and 4 Ave is a hideous monstrosity…but it’s OUR hideous monstrosity…and though we love to denigrate it, you can’t touch it.’
What ‘deal’ is there between the developer and the city that the park would be done by a certain date? Where is that deal documented? The building isn’t done, it’s still being built, so of course the park isn’t done? What city office or official committed the developer to finish by a specific date?
They should have made it a stipulation of getting the C of O for the building that the park had to be completed…
12:32, what is the source of information for your statement that the city did not charge rent for this?
Why is this site full of so many assholes? And why does it matter where this park is located? The developer should hold up their end of the deal no matter where they are constructing be it 4th Ave., Cobble Hill, Red Hook, East Village
12:29. I though ‘real’ slopers didn’t go that close to 4th Avenue. I thought 4th Avenue was a hideous dump that people in the slope are proud to declare they don’t live anywhere near (even if it’s only a block or two) and wouldn’t go near. Now suddenly tarrapin is an important public resource, used and beloved by the community.