Up for Debate: Local Constituents and Political Leaders Gather for Frank Talk on Marine Park

MARINE PARK – A large crowd gathered Tuesday at the Carmine Carro community center for a joint meeting sponsored by the Marine Park and Madison-Marine-Homecrest Civic Associations.

The event’s goal to bring local organizations, communities and political leaders of Southern Brooklyn together to address the future plans of how and what can be done to improve and modernize Marine Park.

“We have to talk about the needs our park has to have addressed like improved lighting, security, etc…” said Bob Tracey President of the Marine Park Civic Association. His words were echoed by Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams who added that “Southern Brooklyn has often been ignored for capital projects and we have to continually invest in these areas so our communities can grow.”

Local residents also raised questions on what will be done to improve infrastructure in the park like the oval bike paths and walking paths, and if the city could hire a manager to oversee Marine Park and work in tandem with the community to address other park issues.

“Fixing the oval, landscaping and drainage will cost approximately $11 million, so any renovations will have to be done in small incremental stages,” said Brooklyn Parks Commissioner Martin Maher. He pointed out fixes done to the handball and basketball courts as significant progress, but added that capital plans would take time to develop.

“We are in process of doing a needs list from several local community boards, but obtaining money from the state to allocate in the city budget takes almost 2 years because of political bureaucracy.”

Maher was also questioned by another local resident on park security due to a high number of groups and sports programs coming to the park leaving beer bottles all around, smoking or leaving needles and other paraphernalia around the baseball fields and playgrounds.

“We’ll utilize target enforcement where if specific incidents happen on a steady basis, police can be utilized with officials to ticket offenders and decrease criminal conduct,” he said.

Other concerns raised focused on improving bathroom hours in the park, bringing farmers markets or a dog run to Marine Park, and hiring a park manager to supervise all aspects of park security, cleanliness, etc…

Mr. Maher mentioned that a park manager will likely not happen yet due to budget concerns, and that the city is in the final stages of hiring seasonal staff to supervise park bathrooms and ensure garbage doesn’t pile up around the park.

He added that building dog runs depended on support from the neighborhood community boards and the community, along with proper funding and finding an area where the dog run could be built. The same rules applied to getting a farmers market as well, but it also depended on the respective organizers obtaining a permit and agreeing to hold the event in the area they feel would generate the most profit.

Other local officials who attended the meeting included NYS Senator Andrew Goundardes, NYC council member Alan Maisel, former councilman Lew Fidler, Congresswoman Yvette Clarke and NYS Assemblywoman Helene Weinstein.

The next meeting of the Marine Park Civic Association will be on Tuesday, May 14th and the Madison-Marine-Homecrest Civic Association will hold their next meeting on Thursday, April 18th.