Mount Prospect Skate Park opponents orchestrate ‘singing rally’ at Reynoso’s birthday bash
"Don't go paving our park"
Local residents and opponents of the “Skate Garden” getting their message across via music. Photo: Wayne Daren Schneiderman, Brooklyn Eagle
FORT GREENE — The battle rages on — in song.
In the most recent installment of the Mount Prospect Park “Skate Garden” saga — involving an $11 million skateboard facility that is slated to be built in the Brooklyn park — locals used their singing voices as a weapon of choice to demonstrate their opposition to the project.
“Don’t Go Paving Our Park” was performed to the melody of Elton John and Kiki Dee’s 1976 duet, “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart,” by an intimate group of locals engaged in a “singing rally” to protest the building of the “Skate Garden” Thursday evening outside of Tacombi restaurant (located at 25 Lafayette Avenue).
The objective was to not only reach passersby with their musical message, but also to connect with several elected officials inside the establishment, including Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, who was there celebrating his birthday — an earshot away from the rally.
Hayley Gorenberg, co-chair, Friends of Mount Prospect Park, pointed out that several Brooklyn elected officials who advertise commitments to being green, climate-minded, and resiliency focused have contributed money to this multimillion-dollar, publicly-funded plan.
“Their behavior is absolutely contrary to everything that they’ve pledged that they would do,” Gorenberg said.
“Don’t go paving our park, we’ll vote you out if you try; you said you were so green and all that; don’t now make it a lie. Antonio knows it; he wrote in his plan, how green space is grand,” were some of the lyrics in the number that were performed on a loop.
While Reynoso did not come out and interact with any of the ralliers, the Brooklyn Eagle did manage to get a comment from the borough president.
“I’ve made my support very clear, that I am in favor of this project,” Reynoso said, adding that he “understands the concerns” of those that do not share his perspective.
“The joy that skating brings to kids is a wonderful thing. And if young people can do something positive, and stay out of trouble, that’s incredibly important.
“I love grass, and want as much green space as possible, but overall, turning the area into a skate park is a tremendous asset.”
Isabel Broyer, president of CuRBA (Cultural Row Block Association, Eastern Parkway), whose mission is to preserve and improve community quality of life, and jointly seek solutions to the community’s problems, said that she has but one message for Reynoso:
“I would like to know if he is going the pave the entire borough; is this the plan?” Broyer asked. “We were told by his office that they are planning to do many other parks besides this one. So is that his vision for Brooklyn?”
Councilmember Crystal Hudson (D-35, representing Prospect Heights, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, and parts of Crown Heights and Bedford Stuyvesant), one of the Skate Garden’s main proponents,
was also in attendance at Reynoso’s birthday gathering, but declined to comment.
The Skate Park, which has also been backed by New York City Mayor Eric Adams’s office, is expected to be a custom poured-in-place concrete skate park built from the ground up — fitted with security lighting, spectator seating, community gardens, and space for programming to be integrated into the skate park and park setting.
However, many locals have expressed their collective outrage, vehemently disagreeing with the proposed idea to build a 40,000 square foot skate park in their backyard, citing noise and safety issues as two of their primary concerns.
Moreover, in a recent interview with the Eagle, Benjamin Anderson Bashein, CEO of The Skatepark Project, told the paper that, “This [the Skate Park] is definitely happening.”
But residents and opponents are still fighting the fight.
Aidan Screwvala, a resident of Prospect Heights, does not believe that “what’s done is done,” citing congestion pricing as an example.
(New York Gov. Kathy Hochul recently indefinitely delayed implementation of a plan to charge motorists hefty tolls to enter the core of Manhattan.)
“That was recently halted in the 11th hour, and it’s been years in the making,” Screwvala said. “So if they can do that with something as big as congestion pricing, how is something like this skate park a done deal? I refuse to believe it.”
