What's the ETA on Boymelgreen Park?
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…
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]
i love gabby now.
nice theory but Gabby’s based in the Slope…
“there is always a little favoritism towards the clinton hill and ft. greene areas over park slope but that’s to be expected…the brownstoner crowd is clinton hill based and it’s his blog…he can favor whatever he likes.”
He can do whatever he likes, but he wants to have his cake and eat it too. He wants to be “Brownstoner Media” and run a professional, for-profit business… but when it’s convenient he wants to be the little guy running a blog as a labor of love and jeez everybody get off his back we should all just be grateful he’s providing this service for us.
Speaking of taking over a public space, what’s up with Belltel Lofts’ advertising a “2.5 acre private backyard”? Are they talking about Metrotech? What’s private about that? Is it even legal to call it a “private backyard”? Or do they have some section of their own that is private?
there is always a little favoritism towards the clinton hill and ft. greene areas over park slope but that’s to be expected…the brownstoner crowd is clinton hill based and it’s his blog…he can favor whatever he likes.
i just don’t think people should be shocked when there are some park slope defenders on here.
Maybe the Brownstoner posse is realizing that these benefits somehow don’t make it Clinton Hill….
Slopefarm – complaining about the glacial pace of the park restoration is fine – as is protesting and demanding politicians hold him accountable.
What people object to is Brownstoner’s never ending criticism (veiled as smarky commentary) of ALL things. In this case the underlying deal/benefit of an upgraded park, the proximity of a residential building to the park and a back handed shot at 1BBP.
As decayed as the old asphalt yard was, it was heavily used on weekends by several softball leagues and the handball courts were always full. For several summers now, those public spaces have been off limits to teh public and put to use to further private profit as a staging area (and, hopefully, a safety buffer). I am down at what little of Terrapin is in use most Sunday mornings in the warm weather and the developer’s pace has been truly glacial. Developers do not have an unmitigated right to use public property as staging areas. They get a license, which comes with conditions. It is incumbent upon them to meet those conditions. The public has every right to complain if a developer does not uphold his end of the bargain.
What do you expect? the guy has zero financial incentive to finish the park on time.