Author: Cornershop

Expanding Food Options in Prospect Park

January 22, 2019

Prospect Park Alliance Invites Local Businesses to Submit Proposals for New Food and Drink Options in Brooklyn’s Backyard

Prospect Park Alliance, the non-profit organization that sustains Prospect Park, has issued a Request for Proposals to expand food and drink offerings via mobile carts operated by local vendors. This will enhance current food and drink offerings in the park, which include King David Tacos and concessions at the LeFrak Center for Lakeside, and, in season, the Prospect Park Carousel and Parade Ground. 

Prospect Park Alliance is seeking vendors that have the experience and skills necessary to operate quality food services at reasonable prices and enhance the experience of park users. The Alliance is seeking vendors who can offer interesting, affordable and healthy food to complement the experience of park users.

With more than 10 million visits annually, Prospect Park is Brooklyn’s Backyard, and Prospect Park Alliance serves the diverse communities that call Brooklyn home, as well as visitors to the city. Locations for the mobile food carts include 9th St and Prospect Park West, Flatbush Ave and Plaza Street, Dog Beach, the Long Meadow Ball Fields at 10th Avenue, and the Vanderbilt Playground Loop in Prospect Park. 

Interested businesses can attend a pre-proposal meeting at the Prospect Park Picnic House on Monday, February 4, at 12 pm, and the Alliance recommends that those planning to respond to the RFP make every effort to attend this recommended meeting. All proposals submitted in response to this RFP must be sent in no later than Monday, March 4, 2019. 

Learn more and RSVP. 

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Prospect Park Alliance is the non-profit organization that sustains, restores and advances Prospect Park, “Brooklyn’s Backyard,” in partnership with the City. The Alliance provides critical staff and resources that keep the Park green and vibrant for the diverse communities that call Brooklyn home. Learn more about Prospect Park Alliance.

Park Checklist: 7 Ways To Enjoy Winter

January 15, 2019

Every season is wonderful in its own way, and we love winter in Prospect Park! From snow-day activities to school break programs, here are 7 recommendations from Prospect Park Alliance to get you out of the house and into the park this season.

  1. Head to the LeFrak Center at Lakeside: It’s time to get out on the ice in Prospect Park. From a day of skating with friends, to  curling, hockey and more, visit the park’s state-of-the-art skating rink this season while the weather is still cold. 
  2. Enjoy family fun at the Audubon Center and Lefferts Historic House: Prospect Park’s beloved Audubon Center and Lefferts Historic House have plenty of exciting programming coming up this winter. Stop by both sites for Lunar New Year activities, including paper-lantern making at Lefferts, and a variety of activities during Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the Presidents Week school break.  
  3. Take a Winter Walk: If summer crowds aren’t your scene, the colder months are the perfect time of year to explore the park’s 585 acres of meadow, forest and lake. Take a look at our suggestions for winter walks that take advantage of the season. 
  4. Tennis, anyone? It can be hard to suit up for exercise in sub-zero temperatures, but the Prospect Park Tennis Center has you covered, literally. Heated, indoor courts are the perfect place to get a work out, with friends or in classes, while supporting Brooklyn’s Backyard.  
  5. Winter Birdwatching: Brush off the binoculars, because winter is the perfect time for birdwatching in Prospect Park! With the leaves off the trees throughout the park, spotting birds is easy–and Prospect Park is a world-renowned location to spot our avian pals. Learn more about birdwatching in the park, including upcoming birdwalks in January and February.
  6. Sledding in Prospect Park: While our winter is off to a mostly snow-free start, our fingers are crossed for flurries in the forecast and plenty of sledding days in the park. Check out our list of top Prospect Park sledding locations, and see you next blizzard!
  7. Take in our Prospect Park exhibition at Brooklyn Historical Society–last chance! An offsite checklist suggestion, head to the Brooklyn Historical Society to check out The Means of a Ready Escape: Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, an exhibition presented in partnership with Prospect Park Alliance that celebrates the founding vision of the Park, and traces its social and historical trajectories. Hurry, this exhibition closes February 10!

Learn more about upcoming events in Prospect Park.

c. Harpers Weekly

The “Beautiful Spectacle” of Skating Carnivals

January 14, 2019

Long before Prospect Park Alliance opened the LeFrak Center at Lakeside, the park’s state-of-the-art skating rink, Brooklynites would wait for temperatures to drop and then flock by the tens of thousands to Prospect Park’s 60-acre Lake to enjoy this winter recreation, with crowds as many as 20,000 skaters on peak days.

A Brooklyn Daily Eagle article from February 7, 1881, reports:

The ice on the Prospect Park lake is eighteen inches thick. Yesterday it was crowded all day, and by the afternoon the surface was rather badly cut up by the steel runners of the skaters. The ice is swept at night after the skaters leave and flooded a little, so as to make a smooth, even surface in the morning. The skaters are allowed to remain until 11 o’clock on all except Sunday nights, when the ice is cleared at about 9 o’clock.

With so many people flocking to the ice, and with periodic warm spells midwinter, the scene at the Lake was often chaotic. Collisions between skaters and slips through thin patches of ice were not uncommon, and “keepers” uniformed in blue kept watch over the crowds.

By the early 1900’s, the city was staging “skating carnivals” as reported on in the January 2, 1915, edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

Brooklyn was treated to a new and beautiful spectacle last night, when the Park Department permitted a skating carnival to be held on the Prospect Park lake. In the light of the full moon and with a thousand Chinese lanterns strung around the big body of water, 10,000 men, women and children flitted to and fro on the flashing steel runners. Some of them even danced on the ice.

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Photo of lanterns around frozen Prospect Park lake, c. New York Historical Society.

In the 1930’s and ’40’s, as all kinds of ice sports became increasingly popular, these “carnivals” became daytime sporting events with thousands watching from the shore, including ice hockey matches between teams from Brooklyn Technical High School and Manual Training High School (later called John Jay High School), speed-skating races and figure-skating displays. The carnivals even had an Ice Carnival King and Queen.

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The 1936 Ice Carnival King and Queen, c. Prospect Park Archives.

Today, New Yorkers can experience with thrill of gliding over the ice throughout the season at Prospect Park’s LeFrak Center at Lakeside. And while skating on the Lake is no longer permitted, Lakeside’s two rinks are just yards from the water’s edge, and visitors need only a bit of imagination to relive those festive nights over 100 years ago.

Resolve to Stay Fit in 2019: Play Tennis

January 10, 2019

For many of us, the start  of a new year is the perfect time to refocus our health and fitness goals. An excellent way of staying fit in the colder months is to play indoor tennis at the Prospect Park Tennis Center, which features 11 heated, indoor courts.

“Tennis is often not thought of as an aerobic exercise, but a good match can provide a really strenuous workout that builds strength, agility and burns calories,” says Paul Campbell, Director of the Prospect Park Tennis Center. “Most importantly, tennis is fun so people tend to stay with it.”

Prospect Park Alliance offers a variety of tennis play and instruction for all ages and skill levels. Youth can take part in group instruction in our Junior Development program, or take intensive classes during the upcoming President’s Week school break. Adults can find leagues of their own, and sign up for group or private lessons with our pros. And, with courts open from 7 am to 11 pm, seven days a week, there’s no bad time to get started!

Why choose tennis over another sport? “People that learn tennis often continue playing well into their later years,” says Campbell. Knowing how to play tennis is a lifelong skill, and “it frequently fosters friendships and camaraderie that can last a lifetime.”

Ready to get started? All you really need are a pair of sneakers, balls and rackets are available for sale or rent at the Center, and included in the cost of a lesson.

Learn more about the various Tennis Center offerings for adults and children, and see you on the court!

Still from "Chisholm '72," courtesy of Realside Productions

A Monument to a Trailblazer Comes to Prospect Park

November 30, 2018

On U.S. Representative Shirley Chisholm’s birthday and the 50th anniversary of her election to Congress, Prospect Park Alliance President Sue Donoghue joined First Lady Chirlane McCray and Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen in Prospect Park to make a momentous announcement.

The group held a press conference at the Parkside and Ocean Avenue entrance to the Park to announce that a monument to Representative Shirley Chisholm, the political trailblazer who was both the first black Congresswoman and the first woman to seek the Democratic presidential nomination, will be erected at that location, where the Alliance is undertaking a significant restoration as part of our work improving the Park’s eastern perimeter.

“As Brooklyn’s Backyard, we are deeply honored to welcome this important monument to a true Brooklyn hero, Shirley Chisholm,” said Sue Donoghue, president of Prospect Park Alliance, the non-profit that sustains Prospect Park in partnership with the city. “We thank the Mayor, First Lady Chirlane McCray and the Department of Cultural Affairs for selecting Prospect Park as the site for this commemoration, which will serve as a critical focal point of our restoration of the Parkside and Ocean Avenue entrance to Prospect Park.”

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A local hero, Chisholm was the first black Congresswoman in U.S. history, and both a leader and an advocate for residents of Brooklyn and the country at large. Her notable achievements in Congress included working to expand access to food stamps, helping to pass Title IX and extending minimum wage requirements to domestic workers. In 1972, Rep. Chisholm became the first black major-party candidate to run for President of the United States. This is the first monument commissioned as part of She Built NYC, an initiative that sought public nominations to honor the New York City women who have changed history.

“Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm’s legacy of leadership and activism has paved the way for thousands of women to seek public office,” said First Lady Chirlane McCray. “She is exactly the kind of New York woman whose contributions should be honored with representation in our public spaces, and that is now being realized with She Built NYC.”
 
“Shirley Chisholm was an American original—a fearless trailblazer who broke barriers and had an unrivaled commitment to justice,” said Alicia Glen, Deputy Mayor for Housing & Economic Development. “From standing up to Congressional leadership to taking bold bipartisan action, Rep. Chisholm made sure everyone knew she was ‘unbought and unbossed.’ There is no one more deserving than Rep. Chisholm of a statue honoring her life and legacy; may New Yorkers of all backgrounds be inspired by her story.”

The site of this monument will serve as a critical focal point for the Alliance’s $9.5 million restoration of the Parkside and Ocean Avenue perimeters and entrance to Prospect Park, which includes $6.7 million in funding by Mayor de Blasio, $2 million in funding from Borough President Eric L. Adams, and $750,000 in funding from Council Member Mathieu Eugene. This large-scale restoration by the Alliance will include new sidewalks and paving, new historic lighting and street furniture, the planting of new trees and the addition of a protected bike lane. 

As the steward of Brooklyn’s Backyard, Prospect Park Alliance is deeply honored to welcome this important monument to a true Brooklyn icon. Read more about this announcement from the Mayor’s office.

c. Paul Martinka

Prospect Park’s New Freeze-Resistant Fountains

November 23, 2018

Runners rejoice! On Thanksgiving morning, November 22, 2018, New York City Council Member Brad Lander joined Prospect Park Alliance President Sue Donoghue for the inaugural gulp from the park’s new freeze-resistant drinking fountains. Council Member Lander funded this $175,000 project through the District 39 participatory budgeting initiative that has enabled the Alliance to install four fountains along the Prospect Park Drive that are freeze-resistant and available through all four seasons.

fountain-lander-martinka.jpgCouncil Member Brad Lander and Alliance President Sue Donoghue try out the new freeze-resistant fountain. c. Paul Martinka

The event took place on Prospect Park’s lakeshore, moments before the Prospect Park Track Club’s annual Turkey Trot, which took place this year in historic sub-zero temperatures. Prospect Park offers miles of roadways and paths for serious and recreational runners and walkers, including the park’s 3.36-mile running lane along the Park Drive.

“I’m thrilled that the freeze resistant water fountains, a 2016 participatory budgeting project winner, are finally up and running in Prospect Park,” said Council Member Brad Lander. “The many runners, cyclists, and walkers who exercise in the park during the winter months will now be able to hydrate even in the coldest weather! Huge thanks to the Prospect Park Alliance for their help in seeing this project through.”

Due to problems posed by frozen pipes, traditional city drinking fountains are turned off during much of the fall and winter months. This leaves the multitudes of Prospect Park’s runners, walkers and visitors without a source of drinking water in the park.

The year-round fountains’ plumbing is located more than four feet underground—below the “frost line,” where the water is well insulated and does not freeze. Each time the fountain is used, the water drains all the way back down, preventing frozen pipes. This feature necessitates that users hold the button down for a few additional seconds than at a traditional fountain, giving the water time to make it up to surface-level.

A total of four new year-round fountains will grace the Park Drive—two entirely new fountains near the Garfield Street Entrance and the Vanderbilt Street Playground, as well as two retrofitted existing fountains near the Parkside entrance and the Ballfields. 

Prospect Park Alliance is the non-profit organization that operates the park in partnership with the City. We provide critical staff and resources that keep the park green and vibrant. Through the end of 2018, support the park and your donation will count double thanks to a matching challenge.

Learn more about projects in the park on our Capital Projects Tracker.

Ladybugs to the Rescue

November 13, 2018

First goats, now… ladybugs? Prospect Park Alliance is always on the lookout for innovative and environmentally friendly ways to sustain the park. In recent years, this meant a crew of goats to clear invasive weeds, and this past summer it meant the introduction of tens of thousands of ladybugs to combat a new challenge: lace bugs.

“We noticed that the asters were dying,” said Allie Loux, Prospect Park Alliance Assistant Gardener at the LeFrak Center at Lakeside. “They were turning yellow and brown and covered in these little dots.” Asters are an important perennial species and one of the most common flowers in Prospect Park, often sporting purple or white flowers. Lakeside’s aster plants had been hit with a lace bug infestation. These miniscule insects feed on the leaves of flowering plants and shrubs, and in high concentrations they can spell disaster for plants.

Alliance gardeners needed to find a solution to their lace bug problem, and wanted an alternative to traditional pesticides. “Lakeside is very wild,” said LJ Philp, Alliance Lead Gardener at Lakeside, “and when you’re spraying chemicals, you’re going to hit something else.”

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Aster plants in Prospect Park, photo courtesy of Christian Zimmerman, Prospect Park Alliance Vice President of Capital and Landscape Management 

While Prospect Park’s 585 acres may seem wild, this green space is a carefully cultivated ecosystem, and the Alliance’s crews avoid introducing chemicals whenever possible. Loux added, “when we use toxic chemicals, it’s getting in the air, in the water, harming our bodies as well as the animals and the plants. Maybe a pesticide will get rid of the lace bugs, but it will also probably kill something else.”

Their first course of action was to test neem oil, a natural pesticide derived from the neem tree. When they realized the necessary quantity of the oil would be prohibitively expensive and application would be time consuming, the gardeners got creative.

“Integrative pest management practices (the broad-based approach that integrates practices for control of pests) suggested finding a natural predator,” said Philp, “and ladybugs seemed like a great fit.” Introducing ladybugs, an insect not found in great quantities in the park, could be a tactic for managing the lace bug infestation while avoiding harmful chemicals, and sparing staff hours. “We did our research and weren’t worried that the ladybugs would out-compete other species or take over, so we decided to give it a try.”

In July, the gardeners, including Uriel Walker (formerly an Assistant Gardener at Lakeside) received their shipment of ladybugs, 72,000 for a grand sum of $150, and dispersed them in locations around Lakeside. They even left them with damp cardboard boxes smeared with honey (food and lodgings). “We wanted them to feel like they were in a safe place,” said Philp.

So, was this experimental treatment a success? “The lace bugs went away,” said Philp, “it worked!” In just a few short weeks, the infestation had cleared and the asters revived. In finding a creative solution, these Alliance gardeners preserved one of the park’s natural habitats, and added a few thousand lucky bugs to the ecosystem in the process.

Learn more about how Prospect Park Alliance sustains the park environment.

c. Harpers

Prospect Park’s Bizarre Bygone Attraction

October 17, 2018

Prospect Park has seen many attractions come and go over its more than 150 year history. One of the more unusual—at least by today’s standards—is the Rotary Yacht.

In the summer of 1878, Park Commissioners gave the green light to inventor David Smith to operate a 225-foot circular water ride called the Rotary Yacht in the Upper Pool (today, nearby to the popular Dog Beach). Hailed by The Brooklyn Eagle as an “ingenious and useful contrivance,” and a “queer looking craft,” the Rotary Yacht was a spectacular sight. Floating in the water just off the Long Meadow, the boat was lit with colorful lanterns and adorned with the “flags of all nations.”

The yacht was powered by nine sails, which could hold up to 220 riders for a spin around the yacht’s center post every 90 seconds. The newspaper described the summer of 1878 to be particularly hot, and there was “not a breath of air stirring.” Most of Brooklyn had gone to Coney Island to escape the heat, leaving Prospect Park rather desolate. For the people who lived nearby, the Rotary Yacht was a fantastic amusement.

While the yacht was a pleasant attraction for most, stories have been told of some falling  into the water and one death was associated with the structure. The yacht was removed in 1883, but the bygone boat now lives on in archives.

Learn more about the park’s past in the Prospect Park Archives.

c. Martin Seck

Fall Things to Do in Prospect Park

Prospect Park’s most colorful season has arrived, and  Prospect Park Alliance has plenty of ideas of how visitors of all ages can enjoy this time of year in Brooklyn’s Backyard. Here is our checklist for autumnal fun in Prospect Park, get out and experience it all!

  1. Take a fall foliage walk! Check out some of our favorite routes through the park to see  the stunning colors of autumn, from the Peninsula to Lookout Hill, the Nethermead, the Lullwater and beyond.
  2. Bid adieu to the birds. Fall is migration season in Prospect Park, with hundreds of species of birds stopping through these 585 acres on their way to their winter homes. Read our tips for birdwatching in Prospect Park, and check out upcoming bird walks you can join!
  3. Strap on your skates because starting October 26, the LeFrak Center at Lakeside is open for ice skating, hockey, broomball and curling. Enjoy these wintertime activities surrounded by the picturesque autumn colors, and before the arctic weather sets in!
  4. Learn more about nature at the Prospect Park Audubon Center. Prospect Park Alliance presented free nature activities Thursday through Sunday in October, and Saturday and Sunday in November and December. Take a birdwatching walk, introduce your  child to the creatures that creep, crawl and fly in the park. Plus, pick up ready-to-go Discovery Packs filled with nature activities for families!
  5. Go for a run. Ready to break a sweat? Fall is the perfect time to go for a run in Prospect Park and admire the colorful foliage from the park’s 3.36-mile loop, not to mention the paths that run through the natural areas of the park. Prefer an indoor activity? The indoor tennis season kicks off October 22 at the Prospect Park Tennis Center. Sign up for a seasonal court or lessons today.

Prospect Park Carousel is a Treasure of New York

September 18, 2018

Prospect Park’s historic Carousel was recently a feature of THIRTEEN’s Treasures of New York, highlighted as an “Historic Gem in Brooklyn.” The segment tells the history of carousels in Prospect Park, including the current carousel, which was built in 1912 by one of the foremost carousel designers of the day, Charles Carmel. It came to the park in 1952, but fell into disrepair in the 1970s. In 1990, the newly formed Prospect Park Alliance—the non-profit that sustains, restores and advances the park—undertook the restoration of the Carousel in an effort to return this landmark to its original glory. The project was a great success, and today the Carousel and its 53 hand-carved horses (plus assorted dragons, giraffe and deer) is just one of the many attractions that draws millions of visitors to the park each year.

Watch the video feature: 

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Today, the Carousel is one of Prospect Park’s most popular venue for children’s birthday parties! Learn more about having your next party at this beloved landmark.