BY JESSICA PARKS
The city must install handicap
parking spots around Marine
Park’s overpriced senior
center, according to an elderly
activist, who launched a petition
in support of the measure
last week.
“They put up this $13 million
monstrosity,” said 85-
year-old Carl Fischler, referencing
the Carmine Carro
Community Center, which
actually cost $16 million and
took a decade to build. ‘It cost
a lot of money, and they didn’t
make any provision for disability
parking.”
The city designed the public
meeting space — also
known as the Marine Park
Active Adults and Senior Center
— as the environmental
wonder of southern Brooklyn,
which features a roof made out
of plants, and a high-tech, lowenergy
heating and cooling
system, both of which were installed
at an outrageous cost
to taxpayers.
And while the city’s green
technology racked up overruns
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COURIER L 16 IFE, DEC. 6-12, 2019
in excess of $11 million,
offi cials failed to dedicate any
resources to accommodate
handicapped drivers, who are
forced to trudge upwards of
250 feet along paths leading
to the nearest parking spot on
Fillmore Avenue.
Fischler — who walks with
two canes — is hoping to drum
up support for his push to construct
30 handicap spaces near
the park’s entrance across
from Madison Place. So far,
the Nov. 29th petition has garnered
40 signatures, but the
advocate claims many seniors
will fl ock to add their names
to his list of disgruntled drivers.
“I’ll get a hundred signatures
or more,” said Fischler.
“Parking for disabled seniors
should have been included in
the original plans.”
Adding new spots to the
park would require covering
a portion of Marine Park’s
greenspace with asphalt — a
move that State Sen. Andrew
Gounardes said he would support,
but which Councilman
Alan Maisel claims would
never fl y with the Parks Department.
Instead of creating a whole
new parking lot, Maisel said
it may be possible to reserve
some spots on Fillmore for
disabled drivers, but the legislator
said he’d be reluctant to
support any measure that reduced
parking throughout the
neighborhood.
“The only thing you can do
is take parking off of Fillmore
Avenue,” said Maisel. “And
there is already limited parking
there for everybody.”
A spokeswoman for the
Parks Department said people
with disabilities and the
elderly can be dropped off at
the community center’s entrance
using the paved pedestrian
walkway at the park’s
entrance.
“We are sensitive to the
needs of people with disabilities
and accommodate dropoffs
at the entrance to the
Carmine Carro Community
Center for them,” said Anessa
Hodgson.
Carl Fischler is outraged that Marine Park’s only senior center lacks
handicap parking. Photo by Jessica Parks
Old bones to pick!
Advocate demands handicap parking for Marine Park senior center
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