Petrosino Park gets $4.9 million facelift, Bensonhurst playground now a kid’s paradise
Olga Rudenko had a big smile on her face as she watched her toddler Caroline run toward the slide in Lt. Joseph Petrosino Park in Bensonhurst on Thursday morning. Little Caroline apparently couldn’t wait to go down the slide, even on this cold day when the temperature dipped below 32 degrees.
“This looks beautiful!” Rudenko said as she looked around the park, which the city had just finished renovating. As little Caroline and other children played on the slide, City Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony to mark the completion of the $4.9 million project.
Named in honor of Lt. Joseph Petrosino, the New York Police Department’s first Italian-American detective who was killed in the line of duty in 1909, the trapezoidal park is bounded by New Utrecht Avenue, 16th Avenue, 71st Street and 72nd Street.