u/IcarianComplex

Dear Council Member Restler,

I am a local resident and volunteer gardener who has been helping steward the green space at K Bridge Plaza, located near the Kosciuszko Bridge off-ramp at Meeker Avenue and Apollo Street.

As you likely know, this area was entirely asphalt until approximately 2017, when the Department of Transportation determined the roadway was overbuilt during the reconstruction of the Kosciuszko Bridge. Thousands of square feet were subsequently converted into public green space. Today, there are roughly 3,000 square feet of planted area fronting a row of homes — effectively the equivalent of a substantial suburban front lawn in a part of Brooklyn where public green space is extraordinarily limited.

I cannot overstate what a gift this space has become for the neighborhood. Volunteering there has become connective tissue for the community itself. Joggers, cyclists, dog walkers, and neighbors regularly stop to express appreciation for the work being done. Because the site is also within walking distance of the North Brooklyn Parks Alliance nursery, volunteers have been able to access plants, materials, and guidance that would otherwise be unavailable to a small grassroots effort.

What makes this opportunity especially unique is the combination of scale, visibility, and institutional support. Very few spaces in North Brooklyn have enough contiguous planting area to create something ecologically meaningful while also sitting directly within a residential streetscape. With the support already being provided by the North Brooklyn Parks Alliance, this site has the potential to become a genuine neighborhood model for community stewardship and urban greening.

I sincerely believe this block could eventually compete for — and potentially win — the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Greenest Block in Brooklyn contest. To my knowledge, Greenpoint has never produced a winner, and District 33 has never had one either. That would be an extraordinary point of pride not only for the immediate neighborhood, but for the district as a whole. But that outcome is only possible if local volunteers and state agencies are able to work collaboratively rather than at cross purposes.

Unfortunately, despite the volunteer stewardship efforts, the site appears to still formally remain part of the NYS DOT right-of-way, and DOT crews periodically arrive to maintain the area. I would welcome horticultural maintenance, but what instead occurs is indiscriminate mowing of nearly every inch of planted space without regard for what is growing there. My impression is that workers are likely being given a broad mandate to improve visibility at the intersection and are responding by cutting everything down uniformly, regardless of whether the plants are intentional, beneficial, or even originally installed by DOT itself.

Today this happened again. Mature daffodils, emerging sunflowers, and other plants were completely mowed down. Even some of the original plantings installed when the plots were first created went unspared. It is difficult to understand how reducing the site to bare dirt is considered stewardship. The result is not a maintained public space, but a barren pit that undermines hours of volunteer investment and community care.

The primary reason I am reaching out is because I do not know how else to establish communication with the appropriate channels within the NYS DOT. I do not want this cycle to continue. I would much rather see these plots evolve into thriving native meadow plantings that improve the streetscape, support pollinators, and strengthen neighborhood identity.

I fully understand that the land ultimately falls under DOT jurisdiction. However, I hope there may be a pathway for the DOT to relinquish some degree of direct maintenance control to local volunteers provided there is an agreed-upon stewardship framework and accountability structure. Establishing that arrangement is the single most important outcome I hope you can help me achieve.

Thank you for your time and for your continued advocacy for North Brooklyn public spaces.

Sincerely,

@kbridgeplaza

I hate it when I have to walk this way.