Park Designs, Lander Finances, And CB 12 Approves Restoration of Dome Playground’s Courts

Last Wednesday, October 24th, Community Board 12 members unanimously approved NYC Deptartment of Parks and Recreation’s plans for a $1 million Phase 2, renovation of Dome Playground’s Courts at their board meeting on October 24 and mailed their assent to Brooklyn Parks Deputy Commissioner of Public Programs Kevin Jeffrey. If all the required reviews and bidding go according to plan, Brooklyn Parks Chief of Staff Martin Maher thought construction would start Spring 2017.

The Phase 2 renovation has been shepherded and financed by District 39 Councilmember Brad Lander, who did the same to underwrite Dome’s $2.75 million Phase 1 redesign, which is going on right now. Not only will Phase 1 upgrade the lawn, landscaping, seating, children’s play areas, add an ADA compliant entrance on 38th Street, and new water sprinkler play area, it will also make the area a little bigger, said Stacia Tull, Parks Capital Projects designer who designed Phase 2. Expected completion is Spring 2016.

While Tull’s Phase 2 renovation will not be as flashy, the courts will be brand new and modern, as well as more visible from the street, and the new landscaping around the courts will make hanging out more appealing. But with one less court — and basket — the courts may also be more crowded in warm weather. Even now there are waiting lines to play ball, a player at Dome told this reporter last Friday night.

Those courts (a full basketball court and two half courts for a total of four baskets, two handball courts and a fitness area) are the originals, installed in 1990 and not touched since, although the Phase 1 area was renovated in 2001. Now cracked and uneven, with fading foul lines, uneven rims, and no nets, Dome’s courts were rated 143 out of 172, which puts it in the bottom third of Brooklyn’s courts by Wall Street Journal sports reporter Stuart Woo in his July survey of 172 Brooklyn basketball courts. He gave the Dome courts 38 out of a possible 100 points.

There are not many other courts available in Kensington, Windsor Terrace, Ditmas Park, or Borough Park and none that get an A1 grade. According to Woo, the best local courts are at Andries (58 points) and David Marcus (66 points), both in Midwood, and Greenwood Playground in Windsor Terrace (57 points).

Once cold or inclement weather arrives, the players in the NYC council districts surrounding Dome Playground (Lander, 39th; Greenfield, 44th; and Eugene, 40th) have no public recreation centers to which they can retreat and no pools. Menchaca’s 38th District (which includes, among others, Borough Park and Sunset Park, South Slope, and Windsor Terrace), has two recreation centers and four pools. Thanks to Brooklyn College, Jumaane Williams’ district, the 45th, has a pool but no recreation centers.

Marty Maher said the Phase 2 renovation goals were guided by what he heard people say at the two Parks Scoping sessions, starting with the first Visioning session held February 24, 2011, and at two other public meetings on Dome: a “desire for a wheelchair accessible entrance from Dahill Road; for basketball and handball and fitness court renovations, and the greening of the park.” He pointed out that designer Stacia Tull accomplished these for half a million dollars less than the original estimates and turned in a design that was right on budget. Said Catherine Zinnel of Councilman Lander’s office, “We tried to squeeze in a lot for a million dollars.”

Still the Information gathered by this reporter from surveys of Dome users during the summer and fall of 2010, developed in consultation with the Project for Public Spaces, and tabulated by this blog under its earlier iteration as Kensington Prospect, showed the handball and basketball players were clamoring for more courts—including soccer and cricket, not fewer. As pretty as the new plantings will look, it’s hard to believe the basketball players would willingly sacrifice playing space for landscaping, since at that first meeting in 2011 some players wanted to dig up Dome’s lawn for a swimming pool or soccer field.

So what does $1 million buy Dome’s ballplayers and fitness enthusiasts? New flooring on the basketball court, which will include excavation of the entire court, the pouring of asphalt and then color sealcoating it; new translucent backboards; standard Parks’ rims and hoops, and nets, for as long as they last. After that, Dome is on its own. There will also be new security lighting, but not bright enough to play by night.

The renovated basketball court area will lack the half court on the Dahill Road side, reducing the total baskets available for play to three, instead of four. The half and full court will stay their current size, that is, 60 ft deep by 42 wide for the full court, 14 ft shorter than the standard jr. high school court at 74 ft. In addition there will be new benches with backs and an upgraded, accessible water fountain.

Where the half court stood close to the Dahill Road fence will be landscaped and a new entrance installed in that corner with steps and a ramp for wheelchair use. From there a new walkway will lead to the children/lawn area (Phase 1) and bypass the courts. The current Dahill Road entrance leading into the fitness area will be upgraded.

The fitness area will get new equipment and a new safety surface, but the parallel bars and jungle gym are going. New benches with backs will be added. Also on the Dahill Road side and continuing around to 38th Street, the cobblestone embankment will be removed and replaced with bushes and a new, low fence.

The handball court wall and floor will be reconstructed, although it too will retain its current size and shape. It will not be widened to include benches for spectators, as the dedicated posse of handball players proposed at that first meeting in 2011. To move the court’s interior fence entails major construction costs, Maher said. Furthermore, Brooklyn handball courts must be fenced in for safety. Nor will that severe angle of the the fence running along Dahill be altered, despite players’ complaints it crimps their game.

“Open space in Brooklyn is basketball,” NYC Parks Commissioner Mitchell J. Silver told Woo when commenting on the basketball court survey. But neither the city, the Parks Department, or the local elected officials appear to take the players or their courts as seriously as the children’s play areas, which get imaginative redesign and a rush to address their concerns. Parents speak up, players don’t.

To find out more about the proposed changes, all of the Parks’ plans will be posted on the Friends of Dome Playground’s Facebook page.

What do you think of the proposed redesign?