Cadman Plaza Park oval reopens in Brooklyn Heights, Downtown

Locals doing cartwheels

May 13, 2024 Mary Frost

After more than a year of construction, the shady oval at the north end of Cadman Plaza Park opened Friday. Photo: Mary Frost, Brooklyn Eagle

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The shady oval at the north end of Cadman Plaza Park, on the border of Downtown Brooklyn and Brooklyn Heights, reopened on Friday after a year-long, $6.4 million upgrade that includes a new lawn and plantings, new paths, replaced plumbing for drinking fountains, and new lighting.

Weekend park-goers marveled over the lush, green grass. Dogs frolicked and kids were inspired to do cartwheels.

“The Cadman Park Conservancy is absolutely thrilled the north end of the park is open,” Doreen Gallo, president of the Conservancy told the Brooklyn Eagle. “We passionately advocated for the Cadman Plaza Park Oval Reconstruction, initially looking for the water to be fixed.

“The Conservancy is extremely grateful to former Councilmember Stephen Levin and NYC Brooklyn Parks Commissioner Martin Maher for prioritizing and securing this project,” Gallo said. “And a very special thank you to Councilmember Lincoln Restler for seeing this project from beginning to completion, in addition to funding the athletic field on the south end of the park.” The renovations have “elevated Cadman Plaza Park as the heart of the community center,” she added.

Restler’s office allocated $750,000 to replace the worn and torn artificial turf south of the monumental World War II War Memorial.

Kids literally did cartwheels in the lush new grass in Cadman Plaza Park. Photo: Mary Frost, Brooklyn Eagle

“I’m elated that the Cadman Oval is finally open,” Restler told the Eagle. “17 months of hard work and over $6 million went into renovating the walkways, planting new grass, and upgrading the benches — making this an even more beautiful and resilient space for our neighborhood. I grew up playing tee ball in Cadman Plaza and I am so happy that the park is looking better than ever!”

Some areas around the oval’s periphery, such as the new running path, remain under construction.

The oval’s restoration is part of a total refresh of the heavily-used park, which has long been used for recreation by neighborhood schools and sports teams, as well as a gathering place for rallies and protest marches.

The War Memorial itself is currently closed as interior renovations continue. Parks also plans to develop a new café to be built inside an existing former Parks maintenance building along Cadman Plaza West and Tillary Street.

After more than a year of construction, the shady oval at the north end of Cadman Plaza Park opened Friday. Photo: Mary Frost, Brooklyn Eagle

While the grass in the park’s oval is gorgeous now, maintaining it may be more of a problem. The money to rebuild the oval came from the city’s Capital budget, Gallo said. “We need 1% budget to maintain parks…. It will be a problem.”

As the Eagle reported last year, the drive to increase the Parks Department’s budget to at least 1% of the overall city budget has wide support in Brooklyn. For example, Minneapolis’ parks budget is 5.3% of the city’s total budget, and Chicago devotes 4.3% of its budget to parks, the figure for New York City is only 0.6%.