Brooklyn Bridge Park Is Open!

It's open! After more than two decades of planning and dreaming, a part of Brooklyn Bridge Park is open to the public. Mayor Bloomberg and Gov. Paterson—who had squabbled over control of the planned 85-acre waterfront parkland before reaching an agreement earlier this month—cut the ribbon on the first phase of the $350 million project this morning. "This is not just the building of a new park. This is the commencement of the development of a modern urban waterfront," said Paterson.

The only portion of the park that is currently open is Pier 1, which features low rolling hills, a lengthy waterfront esplanade, a massive granite staircase, a small playground, several lawns, and eventually an an outdoor wine bar. The lawns are currently off-limits, but signage around the park notes that they will be open in mid-April. The Pier 6 portion of Brooklyn Bridge Park—which is located near the foot of Atlantic Avenue—is scheduled to open this spring, and will include sand volleyball courts and a much larger playground.

The ribbon-cutting comes shortly after the city assumed complete control of the Brooklyn Bridge Park project from the state. That deal came with the promise that Mayor Bloomberg would commit $55 million to the park in the next fiscal year, and help form a committee that would study alternative revenue streams to pay for the park's maintenance and operations costs. One controversial money-making plan—which is temporarily on hold due to the poor housing market—calls for constructing condos within Brooklyn Bridge Park, though Bloomberg said he's not necessarily "committed to housing" as a funding plan. "We've always intended it to be completely self-sustaining," said the Mayor. "We just don't have the money to do a lot of things today the way we used to."

Bloomberg heralded the opening of the first section of Brooklyn Bridge Park as the largest expansion of Brooklyn's park system since the establishment of Prospect Park in 1867, and added that he's "optimistic" that the remaining parts of the parkland will be completed "much more quickly." When asked about the city's progress at Governors Island—which the Mayor has also been trying to acquire from the state—Bloomberg said he's in the middle of negotiations. "We're working," he said. "I'm optimistic we'll get there."