Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Friends of Sunset Park Offers a Pro-Active Option

Last night, Maria Roca of Friends of Sunset Park left a lengthy comment to yesterday's post (rant?) about the conditions in the playground and park. I've re-posted it below. She recounts some of the past efforts of the community, and Friends of Sunset Park in particular, to address concerns around the park. She also offers up a challenge to those who desire change. Maria will be in the park this morning from 8:30 to 11 AM, and she will also be there on Friday and Saturday mornings to talk with and plan with those who want to improve conditions.

Her comment to the post follows:

We're thrilled to hear the interest expressed in "what can we, as residents of Sunset Park, do?" And, the answer is: quite a lot. Friends of Sunset Park has been reporting to the Parks Dept., the elected officials, the CB and anyone who we thought might be interested, on the playground's condition for years (14 to be exact). The writer of this blog has been in close contact with Friends of Sunset Park for a number of years and we thought she was aware of the many levels of stewardship of the Friends: It's My Park Day, CityParks Kids, Petitioning for traffic calming STOP signs and speed bumps on 41/44 streets, Recruiting (albeit unsuccessfully) for parents/grandparents to lock playground at 9/10pm, as well as trying to form a Parents' Committee to lobby for a long overdue rehab of the Playground, to name a few.

We are, therefore, looking forward to sitting down with all who are interested in working to form a Friends of Sunset Park Playground Committee to prepare a unified plan of attack and getting to work on keeping the playground clean and finding the $ for much-needed repairs and improvements.

I'll be in the Sunset Park Playground tomorrow (Wednesday) morning at 8:30a-11a.m., and again on Friday and Saturday mornings to get to work.

See you all there!
friendsofsunsetpark@yahoo.com

3 comments:

Maria Roca-Friends of Sunset Park said...

To anyone who came to the playground this morning in response to our call on forming a Sunset Park Playground Committee:

Please accept my apologies for not following through his morning, but as you probably already read in the post that follows this one, the Dept. of City Planning placed the Sunset Park ULURP application-C 090387 ZMK Public Hearing for this morning at 10 a.m., with almost zero notice, and I had to scramble to attend the meeting and submit testimony pro preservation of our "magnificent and panoramic view from Sunset Park." (More on this in the next few days)

Please do come out on Friday and/or Saturday morning to start forming a Playground Committe.

I trust you understand.

MarĂ­a

BestViewInBrooklyn said...

Thanks Maria!

A (second-hand) run-down of the meeting Maria attended is posted under July 2, 2009.

Anonymous said...

This is great!!! I as well am trying to get things done in the cleaning dept for sunset park. But it has to go beyond the playground. Please feel free to contact me for any hands on help!