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Friends Of Bushwick Inlet Park Use Kids To Demand City Keeps Promise
By
Emma Whitford
Published May 10, 2015
Modified May 10, 2015
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By
Emma Whitford
Published May 10, 2015
Modified May 10, 2015
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A local advocacy group took to the skies to demand their promised Bushwick Inlet Park last week, filming dozens of park-starved kids standing in the shape of a massive question mark.
There's been a big push this spring from Friends of Bushwick Inlet Park, an advocacy group of young families from Bushwick and Greenpoint who have been waiting no less than ten years for a 28-acre park that Mayor Bloomberg promised as part of his major waterfront rezoning in 2005.
The absence of park can be hashed up to government funding, or lack thereof. In 2011, Bloomberg admitted that he didn't have the money to buy the 11-acre Citi Storage site, which sits in the middle of the proposed park. Since Citi Storage went up in dramatic flames this January, neighbors fear that it might be sold to someone who can afford it.
"We are the canary in the coal mine," says Friends of Bushwick Inlet Park member Jens Rasmussen. "We were one of the first communities to go under this sort of rezoning. Communities should look to us if they want an idea of how their commitments have been honored, or not."
He added, "Before rezoning, we were already at the bottom of the heap in terms of open space." When Bloomberg's waterfront towers start bringing more and more families to the neighborhood, "This community will collapse."
The video, which has been published to raise awareness about a rally and block party scheduled for Saturday, May 16th at the proposed park site near North 12th Street and Kent Avenue, is appropriately—almost eerily—set to Cat Stevens. "When you crack the sky, scrapers fill the air/ Will you keep on building higher/ 'til there's no more room up there?" And, of course, "But tell me, where do the children play?"
Where's our Park? from Pickerel Pie Entertainment on Vimeo.
The question mark of kids, shot from above, spreads across the neighborhood's singular soccer field, which a local youth soccer league is forced to divide into mini-fields in order to accommodate multiple teams. The initial blueprints for the park include a youth athletic field, a play area, dog run, and bird roosting area.
As for next Saturday's block party, "We're inviting folks to come down and celebrate as if they were in the park," Rasmussen said. "Of course, we're going to have to do it on asphalt surrounded by industrial decay."
Tagged
Bushwick Inlet Park
condos
mayor bloomberg
parks department
williamsburg waterfront
Emma Whitford
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