The BQGreen is a proposed 3.5-acre decked park over the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE) trench in Williamsburg, aimed to improve local air quality and open space access in Los Sures (the Southside).
On Tuesday, December 9, 2020, the North Brooklyn Parks Alliance (NBK Parks) hosted the last talk of their three-part 2020 discussion on infrastructure projects to shape Brooklyn’s public space. NBK Parks Executive Director, Katie Derry Horowitz, moderated the panel of project partners. The speakers included: Diana Reyna, of Diana Reyna Strategic Consulting; Teresa Gonzalez, partner at Bolton St. Johns and the co-founder of DalyGonzalez; Melvin Estrella, Director of The Friends of BQGreen; Frances Lucerna, Executive Director of El Puente; Jonathan Valzcones, Assistant Vice President- Community Reinvestment at M&T Bank and Vaughn Perry, Equitable Development Manager for 11th Street Bridge Park.
Diana Reyna, a Los Sures native, championed the BQGreen during her tenure as a City Councilor and the Deputy Borough President for Brooklyn. According to The Friends of BQ Green, other leading advocates of BQGreen include local Council Member Antonio Reynoso, Council Member Mark Levine, chair of the City Council’s Committee on Parks and Recreation and Susannah Drake, the project’s architect. The 15-year endeavor resulted from the environmental repercussions of the BQE. These repercussions were shown in the BQGreen film teaser by award-winning producer and cinematographer Melvin Estrella. In the film, Ms. Reyna provides the developmental history of the BQE, noting the divisiveness of the highway in breaking a once cohesive Latin community. “The highway became a violent marker of territory,” she states. The neighborhood’s parks border the trench and along its path the rates of asthma became the highest in the city.
BQGreen will create a “park out of thin air” by extending a concrete platform over a portion of the BQE expressway that runs below the street level in Williamsburg, Brooklyn between S. Third and S. Fifth Streets. It will integrate Marcy Green and Rodney Park, two existing parks which currently are adjacent to the expressway. The design for the new park calls for 3.5-acres of open space with a flower garden, a playground, a baseball diamond, barbecues, grassy and wooded areas, an indoor pool and a water play zone.
According to The Friends of BQGreen, the park will:
- Deliver environmental justice to the neighborhood’s longtime residents.
- Promote improved health for current and future generations thanks to the trees and plants that will help absorb freeway noise and dirty air, and ease the urban heat island effect.
- Be a high profile idea that would make a significant difference citywide. It is on par with the High Line in terms of the impact that it will have. The park captures the imagination in a way that the other potential park projects do not.
- Become a great example of what can be achieved when local communities, city, state and federal governments and private companies work together toward a more equitable and sustainable future.
Melvin Estrella, also a Los Sures native, designates the BQGreen as not only a park but also, a reason for the community to come together in its formation. The park is a grassroots effort in the deepest sense being raised by the community. Though, he notes there are those who don’t want the project to materialize because it would bring in gentrification and loss of housing.
Teresa Gonzalez noted that the BQGreen isn’t just a dream. It is realistically happening in other parts of the country. The 11th Street Bridge Park described by Vaughn Perry is an example of a dream realized. According to Building Bridges Across the River (BBAR), it is Washington, D.C.’s first elevated public park and it will perch over the Anacostia River. Located on the piers of the old 11th Street Bridge, it will be a space for recreation, environmental education, and the arts. Mr. Perry notes that $100 million has been raised of the $130 million needed. The funds were raised through philanthropic corporate donations and community matching funds.
Call to Action
Jonathan Valzcones spoke to the economic needs of BQGreen considering that it has taken up to 15 years to get the project to its current state. “It’s an issue of social justice because it is community driven.” He asserts that philanthropic intentionality is needed and must be pushed by community partners. Public support pushes private support. He believes that environmental reform will be a priority of the new Biden/Harris administration.
Ms. Reyna added, “Once you start getting used to what you have you think that’s all you can have. We need community coalitions to amplify intentions and goodwill. We need foundations and donors. And we need cross community collaborations (i.e. Brooklyn Heights and Los Sures).”
Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams and Rick Russo, the Acting President of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce spoke about the BQGreen in their September 14, 2018 opinion article for the BKLNER. “Our parks and recreational spaces are our greatest equalizers. They bring together people from all kinds of backgrounds and do not discriminate based on race or household income. That is the true power of creating a linear park in the midst of a thriving, diverse, yet divided community in north Brooklyn along the BQE.” Furthermore, “Our Manhattan neighbors have been successful with the benefits from the High Line. We can reap similar rewards from a linear park in Brooklyn. With four New York City Housing Authority developments within a 0.5 mile radius, including Williams Plaza three blocks away from the proposed site, public housing residents would greatly benefit from such an environmental improvement.”
For more information:
- North Brooklyn Parks Alliancee
- Diana Reyna Strategic Consulting
- North Brooklyn Parks Alliance
- El Puente
- 11th Street Bridge Park
Michelle R. White
Michelle is freelance writer, public relations and communications strategist, and environmental and community advocate based in Brooklyn, NY.