{"id":290794,"date":"2026-07-08T22:05:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T22:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/290794\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T22:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T22:05:11","slug":"rachel-carson-council-opposes-mount-prospect-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/290794\/","title":{"rendered":"Rachel Carson Council opposes Mount Prospect Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>PROSPECT PARK \u2014 The Rachel Carson Council, a national leader on environmental health, is addressing the Mamdani Administration in a public statement that \u201cstrongly opposes\u201d the city\u2019s damaging plan to pave a skateboard complex over Mount Prospect Park\u2019s central greenspace.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a national nonprofit, we believe there are times to speak up on hyperlocal issues. This is one of them,\u201d says the statement from the organization, established in 1965 to advance environmental champion Rachel Carson\u2019s scientific concern for the environment and human health, with goals for a sustainable future.<\/p>\n

Directed to Mayor Zohran Mamdani and NYC Parks Commissioner Tricia Shimamura, the statement continues, \u201cThe RCC has seen NIMBYism; this public outcry is not NIMBYism but a sound reaction to a project that exacerbates larger trends in diminishing urban green space. This project paves over a hub for the community in an unhealthful and antidemocratic way the other projects successfully avoid. We expect Mount Prospect Park will continue to draw national attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Skateboard<\/a>Skateboard Park rendering. Photo: NYC Parks Department<\/p>\n

The RCC joins a host of environmental health, historical, neighborhood and climate-conscious skateboarding groups publicly opposing the construction on Mount Prospect Park\u2019s green spac, and calling to shift any investment to improving paved space.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Rachel Carson Council\u2019s expert analysis focuses scrutiny on another Adams-era scheme that should be stopped in its tracks,\u201d said Friends of Mount Prospect Park president Hayley Gorenberg. \u201cMayor LaGuardia dedicated Mount Prospect Park to be not just a symbol of good government but also a lived experience of good government, and for nearly a century this neighborhood park has continued to deliver.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe paving plan runs against law and policy, and science and our health, threatening historic public greenspace everyday Brooklynites need and love,\u201d continued Gorenberg. \u201cFor the important reasons the Rachel Carson Council champions, we are all looking to Mayor Mamdani \u2014 as the leader he\u2019s promised to be \u2014 to solve this problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

The RCC highlights the following:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe project fails to utilize and repurpose existing paved space \u2026 for sound and healthful urban planning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe project unjustly burdens taxpayers \u2026 It is inequitable, and an insult to Brooklyn residents for taxpayers to foot the bill while a multimillionaire\u2019s public-facing foundation simply offers \u2018in kind\u2019 contributions and branding\/design. The RCC has dealt with outsized community benefit claims before and is concerned that this particular project \u2018philanthropy-washes\u2019 over the fiscal \u2014 as well as health and cultural \u2014 price New Yorkers will pay to lose green space.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe project exacerbates urban heat island trends and climate inequalities: Brooklyn, the borough with the least green space per person, should hold onto its existing green space. It is widely acknowledged that urban green space can reduce temperatures in cities, atmospheric CO2, and air pollution exposure for residents, while facilitating higher levels of walking, jogging, stretching, and other healthy, equipment-free behaviors with \u2014 crucially \u2014 low barriers to entry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe project undermines equity, flexibility, and inclusivity: There is no space more accessible nor more democratized than dedicated green space \u2026 That Brooklyn already has the highest number of public skate sites of any borough, and that they appear to be inequitably concentrated, further underscores the problem. Nationally, over 85% of youth want to spend more time in nature, but nearly a quarter cite barriers (including built environment) as an obstacle. Youth with higher levels of green space around their homes reported significant reductions in risk of anxiety, depression and poor mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe project\u2019s planning process shirks adequate public participation: Finally, we are deeply concerned about the details of this project\u2019s planning and construction process, including potential violations of City law pending investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additional background\u00a0
\n\"This<\/a>This recent photo of Mount Prospect Park, showing priceless old growth trees, is located at the highest geological point in Brooklyn, directly behind the main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library.
Photo: Friends of Mount Prospect Park<\/p>\n

Under the Mamdani Administration, a plan announced in 2024 by former Mayor Eric Adams to spend over $11M to construct a regional-scale concrete skate facility on the central greenscape of Brooklyn\u2019s historic Mount Prospect Park continues to advance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The largely paved facility footprint puts most of the park\u2019s central lawn behind railings for specialized use. Friends of Mount Prospect Park, along with a growing number of organizations, Brooklyn Community Board 9 and thousands of local petition signatories have been urgently seeking to protect the park\u2019s beloved greenspace and towering shade trees, pressing officials to shift any construction to already-paved space.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brooklyn has more than 40% of the city\u2019s skate sites, including NYC Parks skate sites that have languished for years. Three of the four sites announced by Adams, all except Mount Prospect Park, are already paved and have not faced opposition. A few months after Adams announced the plan for four new sites, the city opened another $4.35 million skate facility in Brooklyn.\u00a0<\/p>\n

NYC Parks has provided no usage data for its skate facilities. According to the Wilderness Society, Brooklyn has the least green space per person of any NYC borough.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tony Hawk\u2019s organization has recorded more than $400,000 of lobbying expenditures targeting New York officials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PROSPECT PARK \u2014 The Rachel Carson Council, a national leader on environmental health, is addressing the Mamdani Administration…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290795,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,111137,111138,48753,9,24,63,977,976,82],"class_list":["post-290794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-community-board-9-cb9","tag-friends-of-mount-prospect-park","tag-mount-prospect-park","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-skate-park","tag-skateboarding","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}