Fort Greene Park Wins Millions in City Funding

• Pictured: the Myrtle Avenue edge of Fort Greene Park. Image via Google Maps

FORT GREENE, BROOKLYN — Millions of dollars in NYC Parks Department funding will go toward improving Myrtle Avenue access to Fort Greene Park, city officials announced this week.

A total of $40 million will be split among eight winning parks — including Fort Greene Park, and Prospect Park to the south — as part of the city Parks Without Borders project.

Parks Without Borders allows community members to nominate parks and projects for city financing. The funding is earmarked for connecting parks more organically to the surrounding community, such as by improving entrances and greening border areas.

A total of 6,176 suggestions for 692 parks were received, according to the city.

Of those, 194 people wanted Fort Greene's Myrtle Avenue side to be improved.

"The north side of Fort Greene Park is a solid border for several blocks along Myrtle Avenue," read one community member's comment, made public by the city. "It is such a beautiful park, but it remains sparsely used on its northern side due to inaccessibility."

"Redesigned entrance[s] and smarter seating would make [t]he park more inviting and integrate it more with the community," read another.

NYC Parks spokeswoman Meghan Lalor said the city will seek additional community input while crafting precise designs for the work along Myrtle.

Once those designs have been approved, exact projects and their funding allotments will be announced, she said.

A precise time frame for the engagement and design process hasn't yet been revealed yet. However, all improvements to Fort Greene Park are expected to by done by 2020, Lalor said.