Groundbreaking At Carroll Gardens’ St. Mary’s Playground
Carroll Gardens – Just before the rain started to fall this afternoon, NYC Parks Brooklyn Borough Commissioner Martin Maher kicked off the groundbreaking at St. Mary’s Playground in Carroll Gardens.
Situated on Smith Street below the F/G subway tracks, the $1.35 million reconstruction of St. Mary’s Playground between Huntington and Nelson Streets will include new ADA accessible play equipment for toddlers, young children, and older kids; new safety surfaces and spray showers; net climbers; new tables and chairs; new fences; permeable pavers to manage storm water; and new planting beds.
This portion of the project was funded with $850,000 from the MTA and $500,000 from Council Member Brad Lander.
St. Mary’s Park, named for St. Mary’s Star of the Sea Roman Catholic Church on Court Street, according to NYC Parks, was closed and demolished in 2009 as part of the MTA’s rehabilitation of the Culver Viaduct on the F/G subway line.
The MTA had originally pledged to fund the reconstruction, but offered only $850,000—less than a third of the total costs, a release for Council Member Lander’s office states. With help from the Brooklyn Borough President, Lander secured the necessary, additional funds from the city.
The Council Member was able to secure an additional $1.35 million in funding to reconstruct the site across the street between Nelson and Luquer Streets as well. Construction is scheduled to begin in the fall for this lot which will include a skating area, multi-use synthetic turf field, adult fitness equipment, basketball courts, and a walking track.
“St. Mary’s Playground sits at the nexus of three great communities—Carroll Gardens, Gowanus and Red Hook,” Commissioner Maher said. “Thanks to funding from the MTA, Council Member Lander, and Borough President Eric Adams, we were able to use the ideas presented by those communities to create a beautiful space for park-goers of all ages that unifies these neighborhoods,” he added.
Competing with the din of traffic, construction, and the subways passing overhead, Council Member Lander noted that the new playground project helps support the redevelopment of Gowanus.
“If we can make the public infrastructure investments that we need and think in a visionary way for the long-term, I really believe that we’re going to be able to make Gowanus a sustainable, resilient, compelling, mixed-use neighborhood,” he said.
“There’s been 150 years polluting the Gowanus Canal, the last couple of decades neglecting it, but we are now building on the principles that are the opposite of that.”
“St. Mary’s Park will be a great new place for neighbors to gather and kids to play,” Lander stated. “It’s an important part of our broader community planning work to improve the parks and open spaces around the Gowanus Canal, to make sure that Gowanus is a vibrant, sustainable, mixed-use neighborhood for decades to come.”
“We’re excited to celebrate the groundbreaking of the new Saint Mary’s Park, which will enliven Smith Street and provide much needed park space for Gowanus and Carroll Gardens neighbors,” Andrea Parker, Executive Director of the Gowanus Canal Conservancy, said.
“This investment by Council Member Lander and the Parks Department is a critical step towards building the Gowanus Lowlands network of parks, open spaces, and green corridors framing a clean Gowanus Canal,” Parker added.
St. Mary’s Playground is scheduled to open Spring 2018.