Two Rallies This Week To Protest The Fort Greene Park Renovation

FORT GREENE, BROOKLYN — As their lawsuits make their way through the court system, the group trying to stop a controversial renovation of Fort Greene Park will try another method of getting the word out about the plan.

Friends of Fort Greene Park have scheduled two events at the park this week as a way to rally against the city's Department of Parks and Recreation $10.5 million plan to renovate the northwest corner, which includes removing 58 trees to build a promenade.

The first rally, which the group is calling the "Rally to Save 71 Trees in Fort Greene Park," will be held Wednesday afternoon. Protesters will meet at the Shirley A. Chisholm State Office Building and rally between 12:30 and 1:30 p.m., organizers said.

The rally refers to the group's own assessment of how many trees will be impacted by the project. The parks department has marked 58 trees for removal in its plans, but Friends of Fort Greene Park hired its own arborist who revealed, members said, that 13 additional trees are likely to die because of the construction.

The second rally the group is planning is a more family-friendly event, which they are calling a celebration of the trees in Fort Greene Park.

Parents and children from local schools will visit the northwest corner of the park, near Myrtle Avenue and St. Edwards Street, and can participate in kid-friendly activities including sign making or photo ops with the trees slated for removal.

That event will run from 2 to 4 p.m. on Saturday.

Both of the events come at a critical time for the group. Two lawsuits that Friends of Fort Greene Park and other activists have filed are still making their way through the court system.

One lawsuit claims that the city's heavily redacted versions of a report about the park, requested through the Freedom of Information Law, should be handed over in full. A judge ruled in October that the city must release an unreacted version of the document, but the city appealed the decision. The appeal faced a hearing earlier this month.

The second lawsuit, filed along with the Sierra Club, contends that the project falls under the state requirement to perform a study if there are any potential environmental consequences. The parks department wrongly argued that it was exempt from this law, the lawsuit claims.

The city's renovation plan is nearing the end of its procurement phase, which means construction could start as early as in the next few months.