14
BROOKLYN WEEKLY, FEB. 24, 2019
Fresh look for Asser Levy Park
FUN TIMES: (Above) Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver took a
ride down the slide at the unveiling of the new playground at Asser
Levy Park. (Center) Local pols and offi cials gathered to unveil the
newly reconstructed playground. (Right) The park has separate
play areas for 2- to 5-year-olds, and 5- to 12-year-olds.
Daniel Avila/NYC Parks Continued on page 20
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BY JULIANNE MCSHANE
They’re in love with this
park!
Local pols and offi cials
celebrated Valentine’s Day
by unveiling a $4.75-million
renovation of a beloved
Coney Island green space.
The upgrades to Asser
Levy Park, on W. Fifth
Street between Surf and
Sea Breeze avenues, will
ensure that Southern
Brooklynites can enjoy
the meadow for decades
to come, according to the
city’s chief green thumb.
“The park is one of the
hidden gems of Coney Island,
and thanks to these
improvements, it has been
renewed for generations to
come,” said Parks Commissioner
Mitchell Silver.
Councilman Chaim
Deutsch (D–Sheepshead
Bay), Assemblywoman Mathylde
Frontus (D–Coney
Island), and Councilman
Barry Grodenchik (D–
Queens) — the chairmain
of Council’s Parks Committee
— joined Silver to
cut the ribbon and reopen
the park’s refreshed playground,
which includes
two separate play areas
and swing sets, with one
section boasting equipment
for 2- to 5-year-olds,
and the other reserved for
5- to 12-year-olds.
Other upgrades include
a new spray shower, and
more benches, pathways,
and adult and tot-sized tables
inside the park.
to the bridge , and the engineers
and contractors
should have known this.”
Rike followed the story
of the $4-million, taxpayer
funded Squibb Bridge
for years, he said, from its
highly anticipated opening,
to its 2014 closure and
subsequent $3-million repair,
to its 2017 reopening,
to its second closure last
year.
And he concluded
that the wood itself isn’t
to blame for the recent
problems after studying
pictures of the span, and
consulting with other engineers
also familiar with
black locust.
“From all the pictures
I have seen, I think the
support structure of the
wood is the issue, and
that’s what’s causing the
structural problems,” he
said. “Where the wood is
deteriorating, it’s simply
caused by the design of
the bridge. It’s really simple
stuff.”
Indeed, even Landau
admitted how unusual
it is for black locust
to rot months before
he announced the Squibb
Bridge would face the
wrecking ball.
“Every wood expert
we spoke to said black locust
is the best there is
— you could put it into a
vat of water for 100 years
and you’d never have
deteriorat ion,” the parkkeeper
in-chief said back
in September. “So we were
really surprised, as was
our wood expert, when
they discovered that we
had a piece with decay.”
And the beleaguered
bridge’s too-tight connectors
aren’t its only engineering
fl aw — its architects
did not let the
black-locust planks dry
long enough to develop
healthy cracks before putting
them to use, according
to Rike.
“The wood did not
air dry long enough. We
think that because, based
on the pictures, there was
no cracking of the wood,”
he said.
The expert is so confi -
dent of the wood’s integrity
that he shared his
hypothesis with Brooklyn
Bridge Park leaders,
telling them he’d take the
planks off their hands.
But he has yet to receive
an answer to his offer, he
said.
“We’ve been in touch
with them to tell them,
they haven’t responded.
We’d also like to buy the
wood and reuse it,” Rike
said. “We can still utilize
that wood.”
Rike — who unsolicitedly
contacted this
newspaper, and was not
involved in designing,
building, or repairing the
Squibb Bridge — claimed
he did so to set the record
straight about black-locust
wood, which he admitted
is a popular material
used by his for-profi t
company.
“The only motive I
have is to make sure that
black locust doesn’t get a
bad name,” he said. “We
did not supply the black
locust wood, but we do
have a black-locust wood
company and want to
make sure the true story
gets out on this.”
BRIDGE
Continued from page 2
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