14
BROOKLYN WEEKLY, OCTOBER 13, 2019
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
This park’s name is history!
The city must rename Willoughby
Square Park to “Abolitionist
Place Park,” according to
a local civic panel.
Community Board 2 passed a
resolution to ask offi cials to rename
the decades-in-the-works
green space in a landslide vote of
the full board on Oct. 7, in a symbolic
nod to the neighborhood’s
19th century anti-slavery history,
said one historian.
“It’s a tangible manifestation
of a community’s respect and
caring and honoring that history
at that location,” said Harlem
Historical Society head Jacob
Morris, a longtime advocate
for memorializing the area’s abolitionist
past. “The community
absolutely cares that the history
of abolitionism located in that
area of Brooklyn is important.”
Renaming city parks require
approval by City Council , however,
a spokeswoman for local
councilman Stephen Levin (D—
Downtown Brooklyn) did not respond
to a request for comment
whether he would champion the
issue.
The city offered to build the
park — no expected to open in
September 2020 — as a concession
in the wake of a 2004 rezoning
that spurred rapid development
throughout the Downtown
area, but construction of the
greenspace was stalled multiple
times — most recently in a legal
battle between the city and a former
developer for the project.
The Economic Development
Corporation — a quasi-public,
pro-development city agency —
originally planned to build the
park with a high-tech subterranean
garage for $80 million, but
cut ties with the developer and
scrapped the parking lot, choosing
instead to fund the green
space themselves at the more
modest price of $15 million in
January.
The developer — American
Development Group — retaliated
in May with a lawsuit against
the city for improperly dropping
them from the project.
The agency is currently zeroing
in on a short list of design
proposals for a permanent abolitionist
themed installation
from artists — who are almost
all either African-American or
of African descent, according to
the community board’s district
manager Robert Perris.
The development agency will
provide a $794,000 budget for the
artwork, according to an emailed
statement by Christian Ficara, a
spokesman for the development
corporation.
The community board’s push
to honor the anti-slavery legacy
is reminiscent of another recent
episode involving a site with ties
to abolitionist.
As part of the 2004 Downtown
rezoning, the city tried to raze
the former 227 Duffi eld St. home
of abolitionists Thomas and Harriet
Truesdell, which may have
served escaped slaves as a stop
along the Underground Railroad,
but local advocates rallied
and forced the city to back off
its demolition scheme in 2007 —
leading to then-mayor Michael
Bloomberg to set aside $2 million
for a commemoration project
with exhibitions, walking tours,
and a memorial.
The Bloomberg Administration
earmarked the funds, including
$388,000 for expenses
and $1.6 million of capital money,
Ficara said.
Of the $1.6 million, the city
funneled $818,000 to exhibitions
and projects related to
that theme at Weeksville Heritage
Center, and the Brooklyn
Historical Society since then
and the remaining $794,000 will
fund the physical installation,
according to the spokesman.
That year, the city also conamed
the two-block stretch of
Duffield Street between Willoughby
and Fulton streets “Abolitionist
Place.”
But the building is back under
threat from the wrecking
ball, after its owners reportedly
fi led demolition permits in June,
according to Brownstoner .
The agency did not return
multiple requests for comment
on the park renaming proposal.
Civic gurus demand new ‘Abolitionist’
name for upcoming Downtown park
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Community Board 2 voted to rename Willoughby Square “Abolitionist Place Park”
at an Oct. 7 full board meeting. Hargreaves Associates
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