It’s a do-over!
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
The state on Friday halted
construction on the controversial
revamp of Marsha P. Johnson
Park in Williamsburg after
several family members of
the lawn’s namesake LGBTQ
icon railed against the plan
at a community meeting on
Thursday.
Johnson’s relatives, along
with a cadre of Black trans activists,
demanded that state
Parks honchos reconsider the
construction, which has been
widely-panned for lacking
community input and using
“harsh thermoplastic colors
and extended cement slabs” in
the park’s design.
The LGBTQ hero’s family
also accused the state’s
Parks Department of using
her legacy as a publicity prop
to push the contested scheme
forward.
“I personally feel this was a
mass deception campaign and
our family was deceived, moving
forward, from this point
forward, no one will be trying
to exploit my cousin’s name
without consulting with my
family,” said Johnson’s cousin
James Carey at the virtual
public meeting with Community
COURIER L 4 IFE, MARCH 12-18, 2021
Board 1’s Parks Committee
on March 4.
Carey said that greenspace
gurus up in Albany notifi ed
him about the park project
back in the summer of 2020 but
never responded to any followups
he sent to numerous reps
in the following months to be
included in any discussions
and events around the Kent
Avenue park.
“I sent correspondences to
the governor personally to let
him know that our family as a
whole we’re happy that you’re
naming the park in the memory
of our family member,
however, please when the occasion
arises, please include
us,” he said. “Not one person
— no one – responded, and I
fi nd it absurd.”
The state announced the
park’s splashy revamp in
honor of Johnson in August,
but failed to tell locals about
a six-month construction closure
of the space until the
eleventh hour before builders
locked off most of the site
for half a year in January and
broke ground.
Many north Brooklynites
have taken issue with the colorful
thermoplastic mural to
replace the park’s old industrial
northern concrete slab,
with a petition called “Stop
the Plastic Park,” garnering
more than 1,500 signatures.
Another relative of Johnson
said she had no idea locals
were opposed to the overhaul,
and slammed state offi cials
for bulldozing ahead without
proper community input on
the $14 million scheme, which
many residents see as little
more than a vanity project for
Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
“We were not aware that
the community had disagreement
with the park design, we
were somewhat caught out of
the loop in that regard,” said
Anika Dorsey Good, Johnson’s
great-niece. “We are very saddened,
I would almost say disgusted
by the lack of transparency
that has taken place.”
In a Friday morning email
to local activists, Cuomo’s director
of LGBTQ affairs confi
rmed that the state paused
the project following the outcry
— but did not provide information
about how long the
construction would be halted.
“Construction has been
halted,” wrote Matthew Mc-
Morrow in a Friday email response
to Mariah Lopez of
the Strategic Transgender
Alliance for Radical Reform
(STARR), a group working to
honor the legacy of Johnson
and fellow gay liberation activist
Sylvia Rivera.
The state agency’s regional
director for New York City
Leslie Wright came to the civic
panel on the night of March 4
to provide more details about
the plan, including a presentation
by the site’s transgender
artist Molly Lenore of the
Gowanus-based design fi rm
Moey Inc.
Parks ditches controversial Marsha P. Johnson mural
The mural proposed for Marsha P. Johnson State Park.
New York State Parks
Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine
at the NYU School of Medicine