Yesterday, Tony Hawk’s organization, The Skatepark Project, announced its partnership with Brooklyn Bridge Manhattan in creating a new, accessible greenspace under the Manhattan end of the Brooklyn Bridge. Breaking ground in spring 2023, Gotham Park will be a unique destination park designed to foster community, boost local businesses, and expand access to safe outdoor recreation for the nearly 50,000 diverse local residents who live within a half-mile radius of the park.
Phase one of the project, which includes restoring the iconic Brooklyn Banks skatepark and rebuilding community basketball courts, will advance the immediate return of desperately needed active recreation space in an area that has been long overlooked, under-resourced, and overburdened with civic infrastructure.
The New York Times spoke with leaders from The Skatepark Project and Brooklyn Bridge Manhattan to get a sense of the incredible impact the Brooklyn Banks skatepark had before its closure in 2010, and reveal how the community rallied together to champion Gotham Park and move the plans forward.
“‘It’s such an iconic, legendary spot in the world of skateboarding,’ Tony Hawk said of the Brooklyn Banks. ‘The idea that we are helping to revitalize it, and to reopen it, is something that I feel very lucky to be part of.’”
“If all goes to plan, the skate park will be part of a $160-million, nine-acre area under and around the bridge called Gotham Park, which will not only preserve the Brooklyn Banks but will also feature basketball courts, playgrounds, art installations and a pedestrian boulevard,” reports the Times.
“There is space for everybody,” said Rosa Chang, co-founder of Brooklyn Bridge Manhattan,“and we all need access to it.”
The Skatepark Project is committed to supporting the buildout of the park both financially and from an operational standpoint. They bring to the project two decades of experience working with local officials to build community gathering spaces, and will help support phase one with a generous financial contribution. TSP will also harness their expertise and contacts to motivate private sector support for additional funding capacity
“It’s about returning [the Brooklyn Banks] to its original state,” Benjamin Anderson Bashein, Executive Director of the Skatepark Project, told the Times
