Brooklyn Park Gets $40 Million Makeover
“Destination park” part of PLANYC’s investment in open space
The city unveiled plans for the redesigned Dreier-Offerman Park on Augst 1st. (Enlarge image )
Earlier this week, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced a $40 million investment in the restoration of the 77-acre Dreier-Offerman Park, one of eight destination parks being created citywide to bolster PLANYC’s goal of having a park within ten minutes of every New Yorker’s home. The park, located on Gravesend Bay in Bensonhurst, has languished for years but will now sport new landscaping, three new baseball fields, six soccer fields, a kayak launch, picnic areas, and trails for biking and nature walks. “Completing these regional destination parks in all five boroughs will make them the jewels of our park system and increase usability and access for thousands of New Yorkers,” the mayor said at a press conference.
The park is named for the Dreier-Offerman Home, a refuge for unwed women and their children, which donated its land in 1933 for the park’s creation. It expanded in 1944 and again in 1962, when a state bond act enabled the acquisition of 72 acres of land. In 1998, the park was renamed Calvert Vaux Park after the architect best known for his partnership with Frederick Law Olmstead on many of the city’s most important and iconic parks. Judging from a press release, however, the name has yet to catch on.
Despite all this land, the park has been neglected over the years, which a spokesperson for the Department of Parks and Recreation said was part of the reason for its selection as one of the eight destination parks. “They were all underdeveloped,” the spokesperson told AN, adding that the parks department did an extensive study of the city to determine underserved neighborhoods and underutilized parks. “Combined with our efforts to open playgrounds in schoolyards and to reclaim brownfields for open space, we are committed to significantly improving and expanding our park system,” the mayor said in a statement.
All told, the city has committed $1.2 billion to improve parks, playgrounds, and open space as part of PLANYC. Besiders Dreier-Offerman, the city announced a $50 million renovation of McCarren Park Pool on the border of Williamsburg and Greenpoint. The six other destination parks are Fort Washington Park in Manhattan, Highbridge in Manhattan and the Bronx, Soundview Park in the Bronx, Highland Park Reservoir and Rockaway Beach in Queens, and Ocean Breeze Park in Staten Island.
The only problem, at least for Dreier-Offerman, might be a nearby garbage transfer station, as the Gowanus Lounge pointed out. The parks spokesperson declined to comment about the trash station.
Matt Chaban