LICH garage, slated for demolition, was built over local objections
In the recent controversy about the Fortis plan for the Long Island College Hospital (LICH) campus, which — among other things —would tear down the LICH garage and put up a 17-story building on the site, little mention has been made of the fact that this very garage, in its day, was also the subject of bitter controversy.
Most Cobble Hill residents are familiar with Van Voorhees Park. But many, especially younger residents, don’t know that it was once Lower Van Voorhees Park. Until the mid-1990s, there was also an Upper Van Voorhees Park. This park, on the west side of Hicks Street, was sold by the city to LICH to construct the current 430-car garage on the site.
I remember Upper Van Voorhees Park. It was an awkward, triangle-like space, bounded on one side by the hospital, across Hicks Street, and on another by the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE). There was a set of toddler-type swings there, and some local observers questioned whether it was appropriate for local mothers and caretakers to take their children to a park where they could breathe in the fumes of the BQE.