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TONIGHT: Town hall on Asser Levy Park

Downstaged! Asser Levy bandshell a wreck, residents say
Photo by Steve Solomonson

Brighton Beach residents are encouraged to come out and sound off tonight about the future of Asser Levy park at a town hall meeting convened by Councilman Chaim Deutsch (D–Sheepshead Bay).

Locals have long complained that the Parks Department stopped maintaining the park’s bandshell after a 2011 court settlement forced former Borough President Markowitz’s seaside concert series to move to new location in Coney Island due to noise complaints.

After superstorm Sandy ravaged the structure in 2012, the city cried poverty when it declined to repair the derelict bandshell, but some in the neighborhood suspected the neglect was payback for thwarting Markowitz’s plan to build a $64-million amphitheater on the site as a permanent home for his concert series — a design widely derided as “the potato chip.”

Deutsch is pushing the Parks Department to renovate the forsaken greenspace, but wants public input on whether those efforts should go towards repairing the rundown facilities currently located at the park — which include the bandshell, a playground, hand ball courts, and a fitness path — or replacing them with new projects favored by the community.

“Asser Levy Park has the potential to become a more enjoyable park,” said Deutsch. “It’s time we give the park some overdue attention, and begin working towards regenerating the lost splendor of this valuable resource.”

Town hall meeting on the future of Asser Levy Park, Community Room at Trump Village Section 4, at 2928 W. Fifth Street between Neptune and Surf Avenues, March 24 at 7 pm.