State Scraps Marsha P. Johnson Park Mural
Controversial plans nixed after family, activists voiced concerns
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
A controversial plan to
splash the waterfront
Marsha P. Johnson
State Park in Williamsburg
with an ostentatious mural
of rainbow colors — ostensibly in
honor of the park’s namesake LGBTQ
icon — has been scrapped following
an outcry from Johnson’s
family and other activists over a
lack of public input.
A local rep for the state’s Parks
Department wrote a March 9 letter
to local Community Board 1 saying
the agency will continue working
on infrastructure upgrades to
the greenspace on Kent Avenue
between North Eighth and North
10th streets, but they’ll solicit
feedback from the public on the
space’s design.
“The interpretive design elements
of this project will not be
installed until we can develop a
new path forward with the community,”
said New York City regional
director Leslie Wright in the
Tuesday missive. “This means no
mural will be placed on the historical
concrete slabs in the park and
no fl oral interpretive elements will
be installed in the gantry plaza
area. We will work hand in hand
with the community to identify a
more appropriate commemorative
design.”
Builders paused the revamp of
the park on Friday after family
members and Black trans activists
slammed the state Parks Department
at a community meeting
the night before for pushing
through an unpopular redesign
of the park, and using the late gay
rights icon Marsha P. Johnson as
a publicity prop to push through
the $14 million overhaul — which
some described as little more than
a pet project of Governor Andrew
Cuomo.
Family members said that
the agency left them in the dark
about the project’s unpopularity
with locals and activists with organizations
like Strategic Transgender
Alliance for Radical Reform
(STARR) — a group working
The original planned revamp of Marsha P. Johnson State Park.
to honor the legacy of Johnson and
fellow gay liberation activist Sylvia
Rivera — said they had been deliberately
left out of the design process,
during a heated meeting with
CB1’s Parks committee March 4.
Wright apologized in her March
9 letter for not doing more outreach
for the overhaul of the site formerly
known as East River State Park.
“The leadership of the Offi ce of
Parks, Recreation, and Historic
Preservation have heard the feedback
and realized that the design
outreach we did was simply not
enough, and for that we are deeply
sorry,” Wright wrote.
The agency will still move
ahead on construction of a new
park house, stormwater drainage
improvements, installation of a
new water line, pathways, and restored
cobbles, along with repairing
the post-industrial concrete
platforms.
But for the design, the agency
will start hosting full-day public
workshops beginning as soon as
April, according to Wright.
“Our open space is extremely vital
to our communities,” she wrote.
“It is important that we get this
right and that we get this open to
our community. With your help we
NEW YORK STATE PARKS
PARKS
are confi dent we can do both.”
The state announced the park’s
colorful facelift in honor of Johnson
in August, but chose not to notify
locals about a six-month closure
of most of the space until the
eve of construction start in January,
with the project scheduled to
wrap up in June.
Locals immediately took issue
with the mural, saying the thermoplastic
rainbow artwork was
gaudy and did a disservice to both
the park’s industrial past and the
legacy of Johnson, who fought in
the 1969 Stonewall uprising in
Manhattan.
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