Parkside Plaza

We are a diverse group of neighbors and businesses working to build a public plaza at the corner of Parkside and Ocean Avenues in Brooklyn. Where now there is only barren concrete, we hope to plant flowers, install benches, and host cultural events. We hope to recapture, for everyone who lives here, the plaza that sits at the center of our lives.

In the winter and spring of 2014-2015, working with the New York City Department of Transportation, we will install planters and benches on the plaza (and, we hope, umbrellas and movable chairs we well). As soon as DOT installs the plaza, we will fill the planters with soil and with both evergreen plants and seasonal flowers. By May 2015, the plaza should be in full bloom. Starting in the summer of 2015, we will organize regular arts and cultural events, representing all the communities in our diverse neighborhood.

Thousands of commuters cross Parkside Plaza every day, on their way to work in the morning and on their way home at night. The plaza is how all of Flatbush reaches Prospect Park, and it is how our neighborhood in turn invites the crowds in Prospect Park to shop at our businesses and visit our homes. For decades, the plaza has been neglected, wind-swept, sun-burned ... a waste. This is our chance to make it green, make it beautiful--make it an honor to everyone who lives here.