Brooklyn Parks Falling Into 'Dangerous' Disrepair, Study Finds

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK — Walls crack, bridges crumble and sewage backs up in Brooklyn’s aging parks, which a new report found are falling into disrepair caused by neglect.

The Center for an Urban Future, a New York-based think tank, released a study Tuesday that found the majority of Brooklyn’s 411 parks have not seen a renovation in this millennium and that a lack of funding has left the Parks Department ill-equipped to perform basic maintenance.

“Chronic underinvestment in the city’s parks has left them with a wholly insufficient level of maintenance, resulting in a boom-and-bust cycle that ends up costing the city more,” researchers reported.

“The city has systematically funded just a fraction of parks’ maintenance needs, letting demands on infrastructure mount.”

The study took a detailed look at some of Brooklyn’s more famous parks to show exactly just how bad the conditions had become and how much it would cost to fix them.

In Prospect Park, maintenance workers battle “incredible flooding” that Prospect Park Alliance Susan Donoghue compared to rivers. The Terrace Bridge, which was built in 1890 by Calvert Vaux, is showing signs of serious deterioration and will cost $35 million to replace.

The 16-year-old wall “holding up” Fort Greene Park is crumbling and could cost more than $20 million to fix, the report found.

“Virtually every retaining wall you see has a crack in it,” said a Parks Department official who was not named in the report. “It’s a safety issue.”

Bensonhurst Park was named as the home of one of the city’s more dangerous playgrounds, where the lack of regular maintenance work has cost the city $65,000 in personal injury complaint settlements, according to the report.

These are not the only parks that have gone without repairs, according to the report. At least five parks haven’t had a major renovation since the 1980s, almost 70 percent were last renovated before 2000, and almost 40 haven’t gotten major work since opening, which for eight parks was more than 100 years ago.

Researchers said these major problems are only exacerbated by the fact that the Parks Department is short on plumbers, gardeners, electricians, and masons who might be able to catch small problems before they grow.

Brooklyn, a borough that is home to 2.6 million people, has just five parks plumbers, 11 full-time gardeners and only one cement mason, according to the study.

The report, funded by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, calls on Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Council to “shore up the city’s aging parks system” and boost financing in every borough.

They also ask the city to dedicate capital to address “unsexy infrastructure problems,” such as flooding, crumbling bridges and erosion.

The Parks Department responded to Patch's request for comment on the study by issuing a statement.

“This administration has invested in strengthening the City’s parks system from top to bottom,” said a Parks Department spokesperson.

“Looking forward, initiatives like the newly funded catch basin program and an ongoing capital needs assessment program will ensure that NYC Parks needs are accounted for and addressed in the years to come.”

Photo by Kathleen Culliton