Theodore Roosevelt Park

Brooklyn Bridge Park Playground, a nautical-themed play space, is part of a City, State, and community-driven plan for 70 acres of waterfront park. On Thursday, December 27, in the company of State Assembly Member Joan (Waterfront) Millman; Julius (Mirror) Spiegel, Brooklyn Borough Commissioner; and Olanike Alabi, District Manager for Community Board 2, Commissioner Henry J. (StarQuest) Stern welcomed children onto a giant ship’s hull, the central feature of the playground.

Designers Dennis (Phinsfan) Flynn, Hui Mei (Bamboo) Grove, Marcha Johnson, Nancy (Designing Woman) Prince, and Emmanuel Thingue created a replica of a ship’s hull for kids to climb in. They added tire swings and slides to wear them out and a spray shower shaped like a ferryboat to cool them off. A glance north reveals views of New York Harbor and the bridges that arch above it. A nautical flagpole towers overhead. The design will spark kids’ imagination as they step into New York City’s history of ferryboats and maritime trade. Already a group of community residents, Main Street Mothers, have organized to support the playground and help it thrive.

The Main Street portion of Brooklyn Bridge Park is one tangible result of a remarkable public process in which Parks worked with the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation, the Brooklyn Bridge Park Coalition, New York State Park, and Community Board 2. Parks identified the lot and then, in consultation with those groups, planned and designed a 1.5-acre park, a major piece of their 70-acre plan. Mayor Giuliani funded the $6 million of work. The project is one of his efforts to open New York City’s waterfront for public use.

Phase One of work, the playground, was completed on time and on budget in spite of exceptional circumstances. Congratulations to everyone who worked on it.

Watch a webcast from the Groundbreaking of Brooklyn Bridge Park

ALFRED NOBEL TO ASSUME PLACE OF HONOR
IN THEODORE ROOSEVELT PARK

The experience of Theodore Roosevelt Park will be more powerful next summer when Parks installs a monument to Alfred Nobel and the American recipients of the award that is his legacy. There, in a park that recalls the first American laureate, adjacent to a distinguished institution of learning, New York City will honor some of our country’s greatest scholars as well as Nobel himself. Construction of the monument and surrounding site began at a groundbreaking ceremony on Monday, December 17.

Three years ago at an annual Nobel dinner held at the Swedish Consulate, the idea for a monument celebrating the American recipients of the prize was conceived. The construction of the monument was widely supported as a way to honor the centennial anniversary of the prize. Parks and the Swedish Consulate of New York worked together since then to have this monument erected in New York City.

Sivert Lindblom, a renowned Swedish artist whose work includes the Stockholm Holocaust monument, has designed a monolith with four sides of rough-hewn red Swedish Granite resting on a round of black diabase. The monument will hone Alfred Nobel and list the names of all the American recipients of the Nobel. Prize.. Space has been left on the monument for future prize winners. Commissioner Henry J. (StarQuest) Stern, Swedish Consul General Olle (Bulletin) Wästerberg, Nobel Prize winner Eric (Synapse) Kandel, Bronx High School of Science Principal Valerie (Koala) Reidy, Senior Vice President and Provost of Natural History Museum Michael J. (Carnivore) Novacek, Phd, and Manhattan Borough Commissioner Adrian (A-Train) Benepe broke ground to herald the building of the monument in Theodore Roosevelt Park.

THIRTEEN YEARS AGO IN THE PLANT

(Tuesday, January 17, 1989)

RANGERS OFFER FREE WEEKEND
WINTER WALKS FOR JANUARY

Tired of staying in on cold winter weekends? Bundle up and meet the Urban Park Rangers for a breath of fresh air on an upcoming weekend walk.

BRONX

Saturday, January 21 Colonial Candlemaking Workshop

See how the Van Cortlandt family lived in the days before electricity when candles were made using native plants such as bayberry. Come learn the colonial craft of candlemaking in the newly-renovated Van Cortlandt Mansion. All materials will be provided. Meet on the front steps of the Van Cortlandt Mansion, near 242nd Street and Broadway, at 1 P.M.

QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

This land is your land, this land is my land,
From California to the New York island,
From the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters,
This land was made for you and me.

Woody Guthrie
1912-1967