This Historic Tour Will Turn You Into a Prospect Park Expert (Smugness Optional)

 Fallkill Falls, where the park's mile-long watercourse begins / Photo by Matt Cooper

When my friends visit from out of state, I always promise to give them a tour of one New York City landmark. Because large crowds give me hives, I tend to stay away from heavily trafficked areas, like Times Square and Rockefeller Center. Instead, I take my visiting guests to Prospect Park, which is only a 2 minute walk from my apartment. Still, these wide-eyed out-of-towners, cameras clenched excitedly in hand, are expecting historical-sounding facts during the tour. So I make them up:

"Prospect Park was built by the Russians in 1537," I'll declare while grandly gesturing toward the Long Meadow. "In 1866 they gave the land to Brooklyn in exchange for 12 cases of Alabama Moonshine."

After a while though, I grow tired of my own bullshittery and begin to wonder about the real history behind Prospect Park. Lucky for me, and for you, and for all of my grossly misinformed houseguests, a great resource is right at our fingertips.

Park Slope resident Kate Papacosma is an actual expert on Prospect Park. So much, that the landscape historian is writing the first comprehensive book on its history and design. She also happens to give an amazing walking tour of the park, and not long ago, I had the pleasure of accompanying her on one. 

Click to read more ...

Proposed Joggers Lane to Make New Prospect Park Design Even More Confusing

Jogging Path / Photo via http://www.brooklynroadrunners.org/

We’ve all been confused by the various roadway lanes in Prospect Park at one point or another, and the tiny signs scattered around the loop barely provide much guidance. All of this is slated to change. The Park plans to introduce a new biker-and-pedestrian-friendly plan for this curvy stretch of road.  

As FiPS has previously reported, it looks like we’re headed toward a new era of lane divisions in our beloved neighborhood park. Not only will the current, single pedestrian lane be expanded to two, but we’ll also have slow and fast lane options for bikers. Meanwhile, cars will be limited down to a single lane, which I’m sure many motorists will lament as the loss of their most sacred right.

Click to read more ...

Bonnaroo to bring weekend-long food & music fest to Prospect Park

Start dusting off your tents and hemp, Park Slope! The folks behind Bonnaroo, the yearly music and arts fest held on a farm in Tennessee, will be bringing their festival talents to our very own Prospect Park this spring. On May 19th and 20th, the park will be transformed into an "Amusement Park of Food & Drink," which for me inspires images of giant, donut-shaped ferris wheels and competitive milkshake drinking games.

Click to read more ...

Dumb Ass Teens Set the Park on Fire

pic by Rob Jett

Around 2:45 on Tuesday afternoon, a bird-watcher by the name of Rob Jett was happily... watching birds, I guess, when he saw three teens fleeing from a section of Prospect Park called Rocky Pass. The area suddenly became engulfed with smoke. Jett told local blog "A Walk in the Park": “I heard them laughing and running down the path towards the Nethermead Meadow. I [saw] smoke coming up from where they had just been.”

Click to read more ...

Who Gives a Shit: Will the New Loop Proposed for Prospect Park Reduce Accidents?

Prospect Park Road Sharing Taskforce

I’m not a frequent user of the loop at Prospect Park, but every once in a while I'll go for a long walk or bike ride around it. Sometimes I'm a tad confused as to where exactly I’m supposed to be (and as we're all aware, it's shit like this that leads to accidents, lawsuits, ticket crackdowns and the presence of giant orange barrels).

If on foot, walkers share a lane with the joggers, which sometimes gets jammy (not helped by those swimming upstream). As for bikers, during rush hours they are supposed to be immediately adjacent, in a 7-ft. wide lane, which is a bit too close in my opinion. All you need is one fool getting caught up in a call or sexting session and they’re suddenly more off course than an Italian ship captain.

Click to read more ...