Stroud Playground

NYC PARKS BREAKS GROUND ON COMPLETE OVERHAUL OF STROUD PLAYGROUND

NYC Parks Commissioner Mitchell J. Silver, FAICP, today joined City Council Member Laurie Cumbo, Prospect Park Alliance President Sue Donoghue, Deputy Brooklyn Borough President Diana Reyna, State Assembly Member Walter Mosley, students and administrators from Elijah Stroud School, and local community members to break ground on a total reconstruction of Stroud Playground under the Community Parks Initiative (CPI). The $5 million project was funded by Mayor Bill de Blasio and Council Member Cumbo. Work is expected to be completed by spring of 2019.

“Stroud Playground was one of the original five sites in Brooklyn announced as part of the Community Parks Initiative, and it is rewarding to finally break ground and get to work on creating the space dreamed up by the local community,” said Commissioner Silver. “It was a truly special experience working with the Prospect Park Alliance, Council Member Cumbo, and of course, the many passionate community members who came to our public input meeting to be a part of the design process. As a result, Stroud Playground will be transformed into a place that can be enjoyed by people of all ages.”

"After three years of meetings and community conversations, today marks a tremendous milestone in the revitalization of the Elijah Stroud Playground,” said Council Member Cumbo. “Green spaces are vital to the health and wellbeing of communities across this city - providing parkgoers of all ages the opportunity to meet their neighbors, engage in meaningful conversations, cultivate new friendships, and lead healthier lifestyles through sports and other recreational activities. This historic $5 million upgrade, through my support of the Community Parks Initiative, is our collective commitment to creating parks where children can play in truly green spaces throughout neighborhoods across this city. I am proud of what we have been able to accomplish for this Prospect Heights community, a state-of-the-art green space where our youth and families can thrive.”

“The Alliance brought decades of expertise in designing award-winning playgrounds in Prospect Park to this project, and we were pleased to be able to contribute to the Community Parks Initiative," said Alliance President Sue Donoghue. "We are thrilled to have worked on this new design for Stroud Playground that will strengthen and revitalize this cherished community space.”

“Stroud Playground is an unpolished gem in Crown Heights that is thankfully getting the attention and care it has long deserved,” said Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams. “I thank Parks Commissioner Silver for his leadership on the Community Parks Initiative that is bringing the Prospect Park Alliance together with this local playground to enhance an open space that is essential to raising healthy children and families.”

The innovative design was drafted by the Prospect Park Alliance in an effort to share their resources by helping to improve park spaces in adjoining communities, and includes brand new playgrounds for children of all ages and abilities, swings, and an interactive spray shower. The basketball and handball courts are being expanded and completely rebuilt and a new synthetic turf area will accommodate open play.

A new walking track and fitness equipment are featured to help people stay in shape, as well as plenty of additional trees to help provide shade for the new seating area and benches, and drinking fountains. Landscaping will beautify the space, and security lighting with lower fences make the space safer and more inviting. The comfort station will also be renovated in a separate contract.

CPI was initially launched in 2014, and is funded through 2019 with $318 million in capital dollars funding renovations of more than 60 community parks that have not undergone significant improvements in decades. All of the parks and playgrounds that will receive improvements are in dense, fast-growing neighborhoods with an above-average percentage of residents living below the poverty level.

This playground and the adjacent school are named for Elijah J. Stroud (1923-1972), a New York Police Officer who was killed in the line of duty. Patrolman Stroud lived in Freeport, Long Island with his wife and small child and had two other grown children living in California. A veteran of the Police Department, Stroud was assigned to Grand Avenue Station, 80th Precinct, in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Described as mild-mannered and kind, officer Stroud patrolled the area around P.S. 9 and volunteered at P.S. 136. This playground, located on Classon Avenue between Park and Sterling Places, was acquired jointly with the Board of Education in January 1964. Parks Commissioner Henry Stern named the playground Elijah Stroud Playground in 1985.