Prospect Park 4th of July Filth - UPDATED

The lakeshore in the southeastern portion of Prospect Park was an unholy mess on July 5, though a small army of workers moved in to begin a long day of cleaning at around 9:30 am.

(Photo:  Julie Rosenberg/Community Newspaper Group)

BROOKLYN

Happy 4th of July!!  Brooklyn Paper editor Gersh Kuntzman posted a video on YouTube that he describes as the "Worst Hall of Shame Ever." (more than two thousand views so far) The video depicts some of the filth left over from the 4th of July weekend in Prospect Park that he shot this morning. Click here or below for the full article at The Brooklyn Paper. 

A Walk in the Park tried hard to find similar conditions in other heavily utilized parks - Central, Madison Square, the High Line Esplanade, and Bryant -  over the weekend but was unsuccessful. Must be the maintenance and security dedicated to these public spaces -  basic maintenance and operation necessities that apparently Brooklyn parks, and many of the other non-privately maintained parks in all of the City's boroughs including Manhattan,  do not deserve.

The Brooklyn Paper has been chronicling the lack of basic maintenance and security in Prospect Park for some time. 

Brooklyn

We’ve seen some pretty crazy stuff in Prospect Park this summer — entrails, blood, chicken heads, dead turtles, swan-on-swan violence (alleged!) — but nothing compares to this morning’s disgusting conditions on the lakefront in the southeastern portion of the park.

 

For now, however, enjoy our latest video footage from this morning by clicking here.

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Our most disgusting ‘Meadows of Shame’ video — ever!

The Brooklyn Paper - July 5, 2010

Williamsburg "hipsters" Forced To Repair Tennis Courts: A Brooklyn Trend?

McCarren Park Tennis Courts - Before and After. (Photos: www.mccarrentennis.org/Juliet Papa) With increasing regularity the City is forcing its citizens to raise funds if they want basic, safe, park services. And for some reason some communities are doing it.  In February, news began to surface that tennis players in Ft. Green Park were also raising private funds to repair the deplorable conditions of another Parks Department facility.   BROOKLYN

Tennis players in Brooklyn weren't feeling the love from the Parks Department, so they took it upon themselves to fix their favorite playing surface, according to 1010 WINS. Frustrated that the $100 permit fee imposed on all tennis players by the Parks Department wasn't being used toward the courts, a group of seven players at McCarren Park in Williamsburg organized themselves, threw two fund-raising tournaments and used the cash to resurface a court last weekend.  Williamsburg "hipsters" and the Polish community banded together and voilà! Read More: Tennis Anyone? Players Raise Money to Repair Williamsburg Court 1010 WINS - May 13, 2010

City Forces The Public To Raise Funds to Fix Dangerious Ft. Green Park Tennis Courts

A Walk In The Park -  February 25, 2010

'I Don't Like Parks' - Brooklyn Parks Commissioner

“Now I spend most of my time lobbying politicians for money,” he says. “I go and beg for money. That’s my job.”   -  Julius Spiegel

No wonder borough commissioner Julius Spiegel (center) didn't like working in parks! (The Brooklyn Paper / Sarah Portlock

BROOKLYN

He’s been Brooklyn’s park czar for almost 30 years, but outgoing Commissioner Julius Spiegel says he can’t identify trees, doesn’t know plants and has never really been all that interested in parks, according to The Brooklyn Paper.

“I’m not a nature guy,” said Spiegel, who announced his retirement from the Parks Department this week and will be stepping down in September. “I think of myself as a manager. I have a good eye for talent.”

Spiegel was appointed Brooklyn Borough Commissioner — the first and only person to occupy the post — 29 years ago when he was 34-years-old.

But he won’t be spending his golden years relaxing in the parks he oversaw.

“I don’t know how much I’m going to use them,” Spiegel said. “I never did — I’d see too many things that pissed me off.”

During his reign, Spiegel, who earns $146,322 a year, oversaw the slashing of park staff in Brooklyn by more than 70 percent, going from 1,000 full-time employees to fewer than 300. But Spiegel doesn’t feel too bad about it — he says staff during the Ed Koch era spent most of their time goofing off.

“Back then guys didn’t work full days,” he says. “I have fired people in my day. You don’t relish it. I don’t expect 10-hour days — just don’t give me two-hour days.”

Spiegel might have come to the Parks Department as a numbers cruncher, but today he says he absolutely “can’t stand doing that kind of stuff.”

“Now I spend most of my time lobbying politicians for money,” he says. “I go and beg for money. That’s my job.”

Read More: 

Retiring Park boss admits: ‘I don’t like parks’ 

The Brooklyn Paper  - April 27,  2010  - By Joe Maniscalco

Tupper Thomas’s Sad legacy - Public Private Partnerships

City-Wide

Last week’s news about the retirement of Tupper Thomas after 30 years of running Prospect Park was a sad day for anyone who cherishes our limited open space, according to an editorial in the Brooklyn Paper.

In her three decades of service, Thomas proved that single-minded focus, steely determination and well-forged alliances can turn around any situation.

But therein lies the tragedy.

So before the rest of the city, starting with the increasingly non-critical New York Times, starts spending the remainder of Thomas’s tenure penning paeans, we’ll provide a little balance.

Yes, when Thomas took over day to day oversight of the park in the 1980s, the place was a shambles, a victim, like so many things in those days, of municipal neglect. There was a Parks Department with a mandate to run the city’s open space, of course, but that agency failed.

Out of that failure came the Faustian bargain offered by the Tupper Thomases of the world: put our struggling public spaces under quasi-public control, set aside some of the normal rules, raise private money from rich people, and we’ll make sure wealthy neighborhoods have a suitable backyard.

Read More

Editorial: Tupper Thomas’s sad legacy

The Brooklyn Paper - April 14, 2010

City Forces The Public To Raise Funds to Fix Dangerious Ft. Green Park Tennis Courts

The Brooklyn Paper's Meadows of Shame was created after the deplorable conditions found this past Summer in Prospect Park.

BROOKLYN

There’s nothing more frustrating than being in a Roger Federer-esque zone, only to have your baseline drive fail because of a bad bounce on a crack-filled court.

Ten tennis players who use the courts in Fort Greene Park certainly feel that way — and they held their first fundraiser last night to raise money to fix the problem, according to the Brooklyn Paper.

“There are tons of cracks in the court surfaces,” said Rich Rodriguez, one of the members of the just-founded Fort Greene Tennis Association, which raised money at the General Greene on Thursday night. “Some of them are almost an inch wide! Someone could easily trip and fall while playing.”

The alliance of pseudo-Samprases is shooting for $250,000 for a complete overhaul of the courts. Once that happens, the group hopes to coordinate tennis programs.

In addition to the surface repairs, the players want to remedy a drainage system that leaves puddles of water and piles of leaves on the courts.

Read More:

Tennis anyone? New group hopes to fix Fort Greene courts

THE BROOKLYN PAPER - February 25, 2010 - By  Stephen Brown