Grind rails and half−pipes could be coming to a tiny Brooklyn Heights park that also might serve as an entrance to Brooklyn Bridge Park.
Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said he envisions a modest skateboarding area at the now locked−up Squibb Park, just below the promenade at Middagh Street.
“We got some great parks in Brooklyn Heights for younger kids and they are packed, but there’s no place for the older kids, the eight− to 12−year−olds,” Benepe said, speaking to this newspaper after a recent real estate roundtable lunch at the Brooklyn Historical Society.
“It could be a great place for the older kids with a small skateboard feature in it,” he said.
Benepe said he understands that the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation (BBPDC) wants to use the half−acre park as an entrance to Brooklyn Bridge Park, but it hasn’t been designed yet.
Maybe Brooklyn Bridge Park designer Michael Van Valkenburgh will look at the plans and design a skateboard feature there, Benepe said.
Benepe even suggested that the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy and other non−profit groups could raise some private money to make the skate area for the older kids.
The idea immediately drew a favorable response from both the BBPDC and Community Board 2.
“With regards to Squibb, we totally applaud the Parks Department effort to re−open and have it serve the neighborhood, and this will be totally coordinated with our effort to build a bridge across Furman Street into the park,” said BBPDC spokesperson Warner Johnston.
CB 2 District Manger Rob Perris noted the park is relatively isolated and a skate park would require some kind of Parks Department supervision, but it could be a doable project.
While not a skateboarder himself, Perris said he did visit the infamous Burnside Skate Park in Portland, Oregon, and there is more demand for skate parks in Brooklyn than there are facilities.
Currently the only skate park in the borough is in Bay Ridge’s Owl’s Head Park.
Meanwhile. the Friends of Thomas Greene Park on 3rd Avenue in Gowanus have held several skate days there in the past year that have drawn hundreds of youths from as far away as Canarsie.
Jose Portes, co−owner of the Homage skate shop, 151 Smith Street, which provides ramps and supervision for the Thomas Greene Park skate days, has said he would like to turn part of that 2.5−acre park into a skate plaza that would attract BMXers and inline skaters.
But Benepe said he saw more possibilities at Squibb Park.
Brooklyn skater Chris Ugalde said he thinks a skate component at Thomas Greene Park is more of a long−term project, but said that something has to be done to accommodate the increasing number of skaters.
