Brooklyn Bridge Park Opens, Locals Gain Green Space

It would be reductive to say that it took 20 years for Brooklyn Bridge Park to open. It truly is a feat to create a brand new, and quite grand, city park when the Governor of New York State has been closing parks everywhere else. To do it in a recession, when housing prices are still falling and lots of New Yorkers are out of work, is even more of a feat.

True, only 9.5 acres of the total 85 opened this week. But it's 9.5 acres in a part of town -- Dumbo, Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill -- that has a dearth of parkland and public recreation space to offer. Curbed points out that in addition to fields, playgrounds and waterfront walkways -- watch out, Brooklyn Heights Promenade, you have competition -- Pier 1 has a "stairway to nowhere," a granite sculpture of steps that will be a favorite of wedding parties and tourists posing for pictures.