Brooklyn, NY – The “Listening” Session On The Dome Playground: Councilman Brad Lander Invites Input from Community

Brooklyn, NY – The schoolroom at PS 179 on Avenue C and E. 3 resounded with noise, cross talk, and conversation as each team’s vision for a redesigned Dome Playground (located at 38th Street and Dahill Road) was written out on poster size sheets hung up before the audience on a clothesline. While NYC Parks & Recreation (NYC DPR) staff graded this evening’s “Listening Session” only a medium as measured on its attendance scale, for Kensington this meeting hit a high note.

People were having a really good time. And for once they were an “incredibly diverse group of people, a real cross-section of Kensington,” as Maggie Tobin, Kensington’s rep to CB 12, put it describing who was there. To which CB 12 chair Alan Dubrow said amen in his summary remarks.

“The vision comes from you,” Martin Maher, the Brooklyn Deputy Parks Commissioner, said in welcome. “Everyone here is of different ages, religions, boys, girls, young, old. We will build upon this so the community can share Brooklyn together.”

Instigated by Councilmember Brad Lander, and cosponsored by the Brooklyn Parks’ office, and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, the February 24 Listening Session divvied up the more than 60 audience members into four teams—red, blue, yellow, green—and gave them each a large blow-up of the Dome Playground ground plan to refer to, as wide as the cafeteria tables they sat at.

What did Dome users want from the playground’s 2-stage $950,000 reconstruction? The suggestions were often at cross-purposes: more swings, bigger playground, fewer trees, more ball fields vs. more shade, grass, water fountains, exercise classes, chess tables, movable chairs, quiet areas.

An Orthodox Jewish man on the Red Team, who lived next to Dome, opposed the idea of nighttime movies or concerts because the sound might disturb his evening’s peace. But another woman on that team, who works with kids, was ready immediately to volunteer her services to set up a summer movie program. And indeed, with enough community interest, and volunteers, some activities could start this summer. Such a group would have to mediate activity conflicts.

On another team, people wanted Parks to turn over Dome’s key so neighbors could lock up Dome at night. Others—performers—honed in on Dome’s small stage like a moth heading to the flame, seeing it as a perfect spot for Sunday afternoon dance performance or talent show.

Another Red Team delegation was the five under 17-year-old Bangladeshi basketball playing boys, all who lived directly across from the park. They were pushing for a track, less green space, and more sports fields. On the Blue Team, a posse of handball players from Avenue I, headed by Talisha, advocated for more and better handball courts, tournaments, and benches.

Once Parks polishes its Dome conceptual design, its next step, Marty Maher said, would be to present it to CB 12 at a public meeting sometime mid-July or August. This works for Parks because it’s the start of the next fiscal year, giving it greater financial flexibility, and perhaps more money to spend, in its first year of construction. Another “listening session” for Dome denizens to review Parks’ design—especially the kids—with a subsequent revision of plans before the final submission to and its adoption by CB 12 did not appear to be under consideration.

Perhaps this time the vagaries of the CB 12 district will work in the community’s favor. CB 12 does not meet during the summer from the end of June through September 27. There is also Ramadan, observed this year from July 31 to August 30, followed by the Jewish Holidays starting September 28, and continuing in early October. Any effective public review of Parks’ design will have to make a detour around these obstacles and make sure Dome Playgrounds’ constituency has the opportunity to review Parks’ work.