A blighted corner should soon be transformed into an oasis of green.
The unpaved area just east of Paerdegat Avenue North, near Avenue J, is going to become a Greenstreet this spring, according to Assemblymember Alan Maisel, who brought the issue up during the January meeting of the Friends United Block Association (FUBA).
Speaking to the group gathered at Temple Shaare Emeth, 6012 Farragut Road, Maisel said that he had allocated $100,000 in state funding to fuel the transformation. In addition, he said, State Senator John Sampson and City Councilmember Lewis Fidler had each also allocated $100,000 to the project.
The groundbreaking is anticipated to take place this spring, he said.
“Hopefully, we will have a new entranceway into Canarsie,” Maisel went on. “After 50 years, it’s about time.”
Maisel began working on the matter, he recalled, after a FUBA member had complained about the area during a meeting some two and a half years ago.
“There were a lot of weeds,” Maisel remarked., stressing, “It was pretty disgusting.”
It took the intervening time to get to this point. “Things don’t happen overnight,” Maisel acknowledged. “You have to be persistent but, eventually, if you persist, things do get done.”
The goal wasn’t always to create a Greenstreet at the site.
Rather, originally, Maisel had tried to get the area paved.
To that end, he had reached out to the city’s Department of Transportation, explaining the concerns that residents had with the area, which has been a dumping ground, as well as a potential health hazard, because those who live nearby feared it could be a breeding ground for mosquitoes and thus for West Nile virus.
