Well doesn’t that bleat all!
The roof of Marine Park’s $16.5 million Carmine Carro Community Center is covered in weeds, and the city is ignoring the obvious solution — goats. Safety requirements make it tough for Parks Department workers to get on top of the structure, one of the greensward’s wardens told this paper. But the sure-footed mammals are natural climbers and could gobble up the overgrown canopy and even draw spectators, according to a member of the Prospect Park Alliance, which outsourced landscaping work in Brooklyn’s Backyard to the notoriously hungry animals this year.
“The goats have been very successful here so far, and we have seen a great public response to their presence,” said Grace McCreight of the Prospect Park Alliance. “Goats have been a great addition to our landscape-management team. They’ve seen a lot of success in other parks, and they may be an option to Marine Park.”
But the cud-chewers won’t be chowing down on the center’s summit any time soon, according to a Parks Department spokeswoman.
“No, we would not put goats on a roof,” said the rep, who asked to remain anonymous.
The department is instead considering a (human) contractor to trim the herbage, she said.
Locals don’t seem to mind the weeds, but they do wonder what the city’s long-term plan is, and one even suggested another agrarian fix.
“To tell you the truth, I’ve seen the growth up there, and I don’t know what it’s supposed to look like,” said Ed Jaworksi, president of the Madison-Marine Homecrest Civic Association, which meets monthly in the building. “Maybe there will be a corn field, wouldn’t that be cool?”
The verdant roof’s main function is absorbing rain water and shielding the building, which took longer to build than the Freedom Tower, from the sun — a task it does so admirably that it won an environmental design award earlier this year, the spokeswoman said.
