McCarren Park

Sharing laughs and carbs with Kyle, McCarren Park, Brooklyn

I sure do love McCarren Park in New York: nestled between the loving arms of Williamsburg and Greenpoint, it's such a nexus of activity and energy for young artists, fashionables, winos, volleyballsters, budding baseball stars, and sticky-fingered children.  On any given afternoon, the asphalt path is equal parts catwalk and racetrack.  So why is it so dirty and run-down?  As my friend Kyle and I were ruining our waistlines there last night, we couldn't help but think that such a pivotal location with such high traffic could stand to be significantly cleaner and more botanically diverse.

Spread across 35 acres and four blocks, the park has 7 tennis courts, 5 baseball fields, 12 handball courts, a pristine running track encircling a verdant soccer field (my personal outdoor gym), and, along the majority of the largest center block, a vast expanse of dirt that seems to be growing only cigarette butts.

Surely a park located in an area famous for its artist population could be more aesthetically diverse? Where is the environmental art, the sculpture garden?  Most importantly, perhaps, where are the plants? I tend to think of parks as having multiple purposes: recreational, athletic, social, environmental, and educational.  While the athletic resources are well-kept, in the last two respects, McCarren is quite lacking; the only garden in the park is a tiny, uninviting corner surrounded by a gate, and the only botanical education the rest of the park has to offer is to confirm the failure of styrofoam cups to biodegrade.

Kyle and I are mulling over proposing a beautification project for the park, especially since the olympic-size pool on the north end, closed since 1984, is set to re-open summer 2011.  By this time next year, the pool will be packed with young up-and-comings working on their tattooed tans, so wouldn't it be wonderful to unveil a brighter, greener garden surrounding it as well?