Vision for a Southside Park Wrapped in Red Tape
The “BQE Park” - Diana Reyna’s proposal for decking over the stretch of the BQE from South 3rd to South 5th - is a brilliant idea. In a “community district that ranks near the very bottom in terms of acres of open space per 1,000 residents” (and is only going backwards), we certainly need the open space, and bold visions like this are one of the few ways to create lots of it.
But there will certainly be red tape (did I mention that bit about decking over the BQE?) and a lot of expense (Reyna’s office estimates $80 million; the mayor’s office thinks three times that). The key right now seems to be getting the Mayor to sign on to the concept - not the funding, the concept. That certainly was a huge catalyst in propelling the High Line forward, and it is that project that the supporters of this project point to.
Many [BQE Park supporters] pointed to the High Line, a similarly ambitious project, still unfinished, that transformed aging transportation infrastructure in Chelsea into vibrant open space.
If it happened there, they said, why not in Williamsburg?
There are a couple of very important distinctions, though - the High Line had a lot of private backing early on (city money came later), and the High Line was built on an unused right of way, not over an (hyper)active highway.
