This tiny green space preserve in Brooklyn, a memorial to locals killed in World War I, is tucked away in a 3,000-square-foot park, mysteriously padlocked and hidden by an overgrown grove most days.
Since the death of city-owned Memorial Gore Park's biggest supporter, the Williamsburg park has been left abandoned and closed indefinitely, except for special occasions like Armistice Day and Memorial Day, leaving few people able to enjoy its beauty.
The park is based on stone monuments, 83 local soldiers Erected by those killed in the war, the memorial fell into disrepair in the early 1980s, but community activists Guido and Tish Cianciotta helped restore it to its former glory, including replacing a stolen eagle that had been carved by the Piscirilli brothers from the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, at the top of the monument.
“Tish and Guido [Cianciotta]”These were people who made a real effort to keep it clean at one time, and it certainly looked better when they were alive,” said Paul Kelterborn of the neighborhood group Friends of Cooper Park.
But since the couple's deaths in 2021 and 2023, respectively, the park, at the busy intersection of Bushwick, Metropolitan and Maspeth streets, has become overgrown with weeds and unkempt, local residents told The Washington Post.
“The current situation doesn't really honour the memory of those who died,” said Kelterborn, who has been working to protect the park in recent months.
The monument is maintained by the New York City Parks Department, but budget cuts by the Adams administration have led to the monument, like other small city parks, falling into neglect, Kelterborn said.
The New York City Parks Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how long the park has been locked down or why it is largely off-limits to the public.
The city purchased the park in 1894 for $2,500.
While the Friends of Cooper Park has contributed small beautification efforts, such as planting daffodils in the park, Kelterborn argued the city needs to make a bigger effort.
“The mayor took a lawnmower to the parks department,” he said.
The city's latest budget in July cut the parks department's budget by $20 million, making it the department's lowest budget in the past decade. The city reported.
Even the photos I took Recently and last year There are neatly trimmed shrubs and a visible cobblestone walkway, which is quite different from the park's walkway, which is currently closed to traffic.
“I don't even know which side the entrance is on,” said Kelsey, 32, who has lived in the area for nine years and didn't know she could enter the green space.
“It says memorial, but I thought it was just unused space,” said Christopher Hartsfield, 38. “I think it would be a nice place to sit.”
A New York City Parks Department spokesman said maintenance of Memorial Gore Park is “assisted” by the nonprofit North Brooklyn Parks Alliance, but the group did not respond to a request for comment.
Memorial Gore is providing the seating. City RecordsHowever, the only bench we found was on a sidewalk outside the park, facing heavy truck traffic and a busy intersection in Williamsburg.
Since August 2019, there have been more than 30 accidents at this intersection, including four pedestrian accidents, seven bicycle accidents, and 20 car accidents. NYC Crashmapper.
City Council Member Jen Gutierrez led a four-part series on Maspeth Street near Gore this summer “to showcase the potential of the plaza and highlight the need for traffic calming and improved public space in the neighborhood,” a spokesperson for the council member told The Washington Post.
“By taking into consideration fences and landscaping, and thinking more holistically about how the gory scenes relate to the surrounding cityscape, I think we could create something much more striking,” Kelterborn said.
Friends of Cooper Park have also been lobbying for a permanent pedestrian walkway to be built on Maspeth Street, adjacent to Gore, and Christian Dominguez, 41, owner of Easy Lover, a neighborhood bar across the street, said he supports the idea.
“People don't even know it's a monument … No one can pay their respects to the monument if it's fenced off,” Dominguez said.
