Monday marked the groundbreaking of the new $141 million Shirley Chisholm Recreation Center at the Nostrand Playground in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. The rec center, the brainchild of Public Advocate Jumaane Williams during his days as a councilmember, is a project that has been about 14 years in the making.
A host of elected officials and community members were present at the groundbreaking ceremony, including Mayor Eric Adams, Department of Design and Construction (DDC) Commissioner Thomas Foley, Department of Parks and Recreation (NYC Parks) Commissioner Sue Donoghue, Councilmember Farah Louis, Assemblymembers Rodneyse Bichotte-Hermelyn and Monique Chandler-Waterman, Senator Kevin Parker, and Williams himself. Members of the center’s newly appointed Community Advisory Board, comprising neighborhood advocates dedicated to keeping the community’s needs at the forefront, also attended.
Williams had the vision for a rec center after the shooting of 16-year-old Kimani Gray. Gray was shot seven times by police officers while coming home from a party in March 2013 in East Flatbush. NYPD claimed Gray had flashed a gun and no officers were indicted.
“Kimani Gray was shot and killed on Church Avenue, and there was a proverbial fire. Our young people were expressing themselves in not the most constructive way, so a bunch of us went out there,” said Williams. “One of the things that the young people said, [when] we were telling them ‘Don’t be out in the streets right now,’ [was] ‘Well, where do you want us to go?’ And we said, ‘Well, that’s a good point.’”
The 26,000-square-foot rec center is the first to be built in the city in the last eight years. It’s set to be finished by 2025.
Funding began for the project under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, said Williams, despite serious tensions between him and the then-mayor. Back in 2017, Bloomberg allocated $400,000 in city money for a feasibility study and then a starter $50 million toward construction of the rec center, reported PoliticsNY. Former Mayor Bill de Blasio and current Mayor Adams have added to the pot of funding since then.
Earnest Skinner, who was Williams’s community liaison, said that back in 2009, during Williams’s campaign for office, there was feedback from the community about a need for more recreational facilities in the district. He never felt defeated that the rec center took so long to come to fruition, but was “saddened” that some community members opposed it. Initially, Williams pitched the rec center to be located near Tilden Park, but received immense pushback from homeowners and residents. Parker added that even though there were huge fights among community members, people were passionate about coming together to see it done in the end.
Bernadina Simon, who has lived in the community for about 50 years and was against the center being in Tilden, said she felt it just wasn’t the right space to encompass everything officials wanted to do. That prompted her to get involved.
The DDC is managing the construction with Design/Builder Lendlease, Studio Gang, McKissack and Mickissack, 40 Six Four Architecture, and Elizabeth Kennedy Landscape Architect, PLLC. Under the state’s new “progressive design-build,” which allows for the city to select a project team to work with quickly, the rec center should be completed two years faster than average. The “green” facility should have features such as a media lab named in honor of Dr. Roy A. Hastick, a gym, track, teaching kitchen, and an indoor swimming pool. Electeds were told some of these elements wouldn’t be possible for years, said Williams.
Williams said that the process was “draining at times,” and he assumed the rec center wouldn’t be done in his time on the City Council, but he wasn’t exactly disappointed. He credited Louis for picking up the mantle and negotiating for more amenities and features than he dreamed of.
“I stand by that vision—a vision that started many, many years ago with Public Advocate Williams. It is the vision of this community, advocates, and community members. I stand on your shoulders,” said Louis.
The new center is named after Brooklyn native Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman to serve in Congress, who also made a legendary run for president of the U.S.
Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso said in a statement that he is thrilled that the borough will continue to honor Chisholm’s contributions to Black excellence and the strength of democracy with the new rec center.
“Shirley Chisholm inspired millions of young girls to pursue dreams they never thought possible, and when the Shirley Chisholm Recreational Center opens, her name will once again inspire another generation, while providing the residents of East Flatbush with a state-of-the-art recreational center that honors the rich history and heritage of this vibrant community,” said Adams. “I am especially pleased to see that the media lab will bear the name of a personal friend and mentor, Dr. Roy Hastick, who was a true champion of the Caribbean community in East Flatbush. With this project, our administration is using all the tools at our disposal to deliver amenities for New Yorkers more quickly and efficiently than ever before.”
Earlier this year, Adams’s Capital Process Reform Task Force made recommendations to enhance the city’s capital projects, seeking projects that meet or exceed 30% minority- and women-owned business enterprise (M/WBEs) participation goals for all aspects of contracting.
Bichotte-Hermelyn, who chairs the subcommittee on oversight of M/WBEs in the assembly, was especially proud of the rec center’s M/WBE component. “We have been continuing to encourage and uplift M/WBEs and the whole community through vast contracting opportunities,” she said. “As the chair of the subcommittee, it was valuable for me, important for me, to make sure there was equity; that we had job creation and that this community would be participating in this.”
Adams and Chandler-Waterman both noted that the rec center will be a great opportunity for community-based solutions to ongoing gun violence among youth and to invest in public safety and public health in the district. Although trending down, year-to-date police statistics for Precinct 67 indicate that there were 40 shooting victims in the area in 2022 and 34 so far this year.
“Let’s not miss the crisis management team,” said Adams. “You can build beautiful structures that will remain empty if someone isn’t [there] to give [young people] [comfort] to come inside and participate. We need those crisis management teams to go out there and nurture young people and tell them they don’t have to just stand on the corner.”
Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member and writes about politics for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.