4
BROOKLYN WEEKLY, OCTOBER 27, 2019
HIS, HERS, AND THEIRS
Civic honcho demands gender-neutral bathroom in Fort Greene park
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
He wants to take the binary
out of going number one
and number two!
The Parks Department
must build a separate, gender
neutral bathroom as
part of a pricey makeover of
Fort Greene’s Commodore
Barry Park comfort station,
even though city law allows
people to use whichever loo
they identify with, according
to a member of Community
Board 2’s Parks and
Recreation Committee.
“It doesn’t satisfy me
that they can use any bathroom
they feel closely
aligned with — that’s not
the answer,” said the committee’s
vice chair Andrew
Lastowecky at the Monday
meeting. “I know certain
transgender people that
don’t feel comfortable with
this ‘identify with whoever
you are.’”
Parks offi cials presented
the committee with a $3.1
million renovation of the
bathrooms at the Flushing
Avenue park, with plans
showing a complete gut
renovation of the interior,
along with a new roof, windows,
masonry, and accessibility
upgrades.
The bathroom between
the park’s baseball fi eld and
playground has not been
renovated since the 1980s,
and the city plans to fi nish
the new design by spring
2020, paving the way for the
comfort station’s reopening
the following year, according
to Parks architect Julie
Fisher.
Lastowecky proposed
cannibalizing parts of the
comfort station’s mechanical
room to make way for
the gender-neutral stall, but
a rep for the Parks Department
said that there simply
wasn’t room for a whole
other stall, while referring
to Mayor de Blasio’s 2016
decree essentially allowing
New Yorkers to use whichever
city bathroom they
preferred.
“We’re squeezing a lot
into this building and Commodore
Barry Park desperately
needs bathrooms,”
said Jim Morris.
Lastowecky and his fellow
committee members
previously scolded green
space gurus for not doing
more for gender-nonconforming
Brooklynites
when they presented a renovation
of a comfort station
in Cadman Plaza Park in
March.
The board’s assistant district
manager agreed that
the park was in dire need of
additional bathrooms, and
said the Parks Department
should be looking at ways to
increase the number of toilets
to accommodate special
events at the Fort Greene
green space.
“You’re able to go into
whichever bathroom you
want to while we’re retaining
the maximum amount
of bathrooms — which I’m
thinking, four, really?” said
Carol-Ann Church. “When
you have an event, four isn’t
going to be nearly enough.”
The committee passed
a purely advisory motion
to approve the design, but
Lastowecky noted that he
didn’t want to wait decades
for another renovation to
get it right on gender-neutral
facilities.
“Since this will take another
20 years before it’s
touched again we’re not approaching
it all over again,
this is a newer project, so
I’m a little disappointed,”
he said.
The city must install a gender-neutral bathroom at Commodore
Barry Park’s comfort station, demands one civic honcho.
Photo by Kevin Duggan
Connect to Your Future at
York College Open House this Fall!
Sunday, November 10, 12 to 3 PM
• Experience our dynamic campus culture with a day of
live entertainment, food and fun
• Network with professors to explore the various courses
and majors options available to students
• Discover financing options through scholarships and
financial aid
• Take a student-guided tour to see our
beautiful campus
Your future is out there, unfold it
by connecting to York College
Reserve your place:
www.york.cuny.edu/openhouse2019
Academic Core Building, 94-20 Guy R. Brewer Blvd., Jamaica, NY 11451
/openhouse2019
/openhouse2019