Fort Greene Park’s trees get a reprieve from state judge

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Long-planned Fort Greene Park revamp is temporarily halted

A long-gestating plan to revamp the northwest corner of Fort Greene Park has been temporarily blocked after a judge ruled in favor of community activists who opposed the proposal, Gothamist reports.

In 2019, a coalition of local residents and activists (including the lawsuit-happy City Club of New York) sued the NYC Parks Department and the City of New York to stop the planned redevelopment, which would raze more than 80 mature trees on the Myrtle Avenue side of the park, and replace them with a paved entrance plaza. In a ruling issued last week, Hon. Julio Rodriguez III sided with the plaintiffs and issued a temporary restraining order, noting that the city has not sufficiently explained why some of the planned changes are necessary, and that further environmental review should be undertaken before the plans move forward.

While activists cheered the decision, the city vowed to fight it. “We disagree with this ruling,” Nicholas Paolucci, a spokesperson for the city’s Law Department, told the Brooklyn Paper. “The city followed the law and the approvals needed for this type of project. An environmental review was not required.”

And in other news…

• The city is still figuring out what, exactly, caused yesterday’s massive water main break on the Upper West Side, which snarled commutes and flooded the neighborhood.
• The divisive plan for a LaGuardia AirTrain has a new, powerful opponent: Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
• The E train will get new, modern signals—by 2025.
• There’s a co-living boom happening in New York City.
• New York state Attorney General Letitia James will investigate whether racial bias plays a role in fare evasion arrests.
• Desperate times in NYC’s condo market call for desperate measures.
• And finally, how does one of the city’s best-known jewelry stores move millions of dollars of merchandise without anything going wrong? Very, very carefully.