The Green-Wood Cemetery is gearing up to transform portions of its perimeter to include a new gate, bike paths, seating and artwork.
The cemetery on Monday said it received $4 million in funding from the City Council for community outreach and design of the Green-Wood Green-Way, which will stretch along Fort Hamilton Parkway from McDonald Avenue to 37th Street and along 37th and 36th Streets to Fourth Avenue. Currently the border to the cemetery here is made up of limited and largely damaged sidewalks.
Despite being an essential connecting corridor, it has no designated space for pedestrians or bicycle access. Instead, it is populated with illegally parked trucks and RVs, heavy machinery, and mountains of dumped trash, all along a solid iron gate that provides no access to the cemetery, according to officials.
The funds will be used to gather community feedback and design the corridor, which will include a broad pedestrian boulevard, protected bike lanes, new plantings, lighting, seating and public art.
There are plans for a new Sunset Park entrance to the cemetery, which will allow visitors arriving via the Ninth Avenue D train station easier access to the cemetery. The new entrance will be positioned to highlight and bring awareness to Green-Wood's Freedom Lots, the largest undisturbed, nineteenth-century burial site of Black Americans in New York City, according to officials.
"For too many lifetimes the Sunset Park community has been bordered by a mile-and-a-half of no man's land and a critical transportation connector has laid fallow," Meera Joshi, president of The Green-Wood Cemetery said in a statement. "The wait is over, the Green-Wood Green-Way and new entrance will turn this neglected public space into a neighborhood destination and provide easy access to Green-Wood's 478 acres."
The vision for the Green-Way has been informed by conversations with neighborhood organizations and advocates, including UPROSE, the Center for Family Life, the Chinese-American Planning Council, Transportation Alternatives, Bike South Brooklyn, and Brooklyn Community Board 7. Green-Wood will continue to engage with neighborhood organizations and advocates to further develop the plan, officials said.
