NYC residents in the hot nabe want judges to stop parking to provide essential services
They oppose it, Your Honor.
Dozens of Brooklynites gathered Sunday to urge the city to finally turn a downtown parking lot used by judges into what it was officially designed for — a park.
For decades, law enforcement officials and their staff have been using the dozen or so parking lots that cover Columbus Park’s concrete block and refused to budge, local City Councilman Lincoln Restler told The Post.
“Generations of judges … have just put their own self-serving, selfish interests at the expense of what is good for our community,” Restler said at the protest.
“In recent years, we’ve seen this explosion of new development in our community outside of the park space that was supposed to go with it.
“This is our chance to fix that.”
Downtown Brooklyn judges already have access to 250 free parking spaces in the immediate area, including 170 spaces reserved on the street and another 80 in a city-built parking garage two blocks away, Restler said.
Meanwhile, more than 25,000 homes have been built in downtown Brooklyn in recent years, leaving new neighbors scrambling for the much-coveted green space, locals say.
“Every summer when I drive by when it’s really hot, I find myself wishing there were more shade trees and grass to cool off,” said Cobble Hill resident Kate Blumm.
“It makes sense to me that this [park] it can serve many members of the community. … It seems like a win for everybody.”
It is not surprising that the judges have already made a law case in the mess.
In July, a jury took the city and then-Mayor Eric Adams to court over allegations that his administration violated a 2008 agreement that required the city to seek judicial approval before planning to remove parking lots.
Restler said the street and private parking alternatives he has identified — including at Brooklyn Law School, a Marriott hotel and a nearby apartment building — are more than enough.
He said that the change in the administration of the mayor of the city has made him “hopeful” that this plan will be realized in the end.
“I think [the judges] they’re very powerful,” he said. “And I think a lot of elected officials in past administrations have been afraid to take them on, because who knows in the future any one of us might end up in Brooklyn city court … and maybe it might be frowned upon.”
The councilor said that if the judges remain strong, he plans to look around the city at all the parking lots for the judges to see which places are really needed.
“Our community desperately needs green space … we can do this well, or we can do this hard,” he told the crowd at the rally.
“It is time for us to remove the judges,” he said. “Most of these judges are alive [within] walking distance.
“They can take the subway.”
Downtown Brooklyn and its surrounding areas are made up of only about 6% parks compared to the citywide average of 23%, said Kathy Park-Price of the group New Yorkers for Parks at the rally.
Columbus Park would “serve thousands [if converted to green space] compared to the lot that works by being a parking lot,” he said.
“This is an emergency situation … We will not have more development without taking care, expanding [and] to improve our existing parks.”
Under the $80 million proposal, Columbus Park would be transformed into an 8-acre park with grass, a field and a garden.
So far, Restler has received $21 million in funding — but whether the judges will approve the plan remains up in the air.
“There are no alternatives currently being proposed that would provide adequate protection for our judges,” Al Baker, chief of the New York Office of Judicial Administration, told The New York Times earlier this year.
The article listed additional threats made to judges as the main reason for holding the parking lot.
A request for comment to the office was not returned.
