Cuomo showers state money on Central Brooklyn community gardens

Part of ‘Vital Brooklyn’ improvement project

July 19, 2018 By Mary Frost Brooklyn Daily Eagle

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/A

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Central Brooklyn just got a lot greener.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo brought a present from the state to Crown Heights on Thursday when he officially announced $3.1 million in grants to improve 22 community gardens in Central Brooklyn.

The garden funds, which will pay for such items as on-site water hookups, are part of the governor’s Vital Brooklyn initiative, designed to address chronic social, economic, and health disparities in the underserved area Brooklyn.

Other Vital Brooklyn parks and recreation funds will go toward pocket parks and playgrounds, and will include a new 407-acre state park on Jamaica Bay. In the first phase of this project, the state will invest up to $15 million to make available 3.5 miles of waterfront and miles of paths and trails.

In addition, $1.8 million is budgeted for Madison Square Boys and Girls Club Thomas Murphy Clubhouse, North Brooklyn/Twelve Towns YMCA, Bedford Stuyvesant YMCA and Flatbush YMCA.

The governor was welcomed to the Bergen Street Block Association Garden, at 1105 Bergen St., by Assemblymember Tremaine Wright (D-Bedford-Stuyvesant, Northern Crown Heights).

Improvements kicked off this spring, and are scheduled to be complete by 2020.

The funds are provided by the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.