UPDATE: Already got word that May 24th is the official *ribbon cutting ceremony*, with the mayor, press, etc. The space is officially open to the public on May 25th.
Between a massive press release put out by the city and Jenkem’s piece with Steve R., we now have a clearish picture about how the Brooklyn Banks reopenings are set to go. (As opposed to a bunch of dumb rumors that surfaced when the city removed the bricks from the Big Banks back in 2020.)
A friendly reader, while discussing the sorely missed NYSkateboarding, suggested that we run the occasional uptick of skatepark news on here as a public service: “How else are people supposed to know there’s a new park?” (This one has showed up on IG here and there, but isn’t officially open yet.)
Though it is located in Callahan-Kelly Playground in kinda-Bed-Stuy / kinda-Brownsville, the park is visible from the J and Z platform at Broadway Junction, so everyone has been calling it “the Broadway Junction Park.”
“It’s ironic and sad that a culture whose activity became popular enough to have space allotted for its own built environments would go on to design spaces according to its own tastes that would then become the worst environments for the further development and continuation of the culture.” Dave Caddo got on the Substack wave: Skait Brane explores how to better use street spots as a guiding light in how skateparks are designed. His latest is about how Pyramid Ledges succeeds at being a great place for skateboarding in a way that your average out-ledge at a skatepark does not.
“Once I started skating Pulaski, there was just simple shit that became way more important. Things like going faster, doing things properly, you didn’t have to flip into everything but you had to grind the ledge a certain way.” Skate Jawn has an interview with Carpet Company rider, Rashad Murray.
Everyone’s “#__ should’ve been #1” comments every week are always correct, but don’t wanna hear it this week. ← That link is a spoiler, obviously.
Shout out to longtime QS reader Bob DeNiro on the birth of his 7th child! Big week for all the O.Gs.
Have a good one ❤️
Given the ups and downs that the bust at this spot has experienced over the past decade-plus, it’s a shocker this step has taken so long: as of this morning, maintenance crews have began knobbing the ledges at Big Screen.
It was supposed to get knobbed back when the building first boarded the park off in July 2020 — after the park got too wild at the start of the pandemic (there’s footage from that era where you literally see people having sex in the background of people’s lines), but then they simply …re-opened it. For years, security guards and maintenance dudes have been alluding to the fact that “something” was about to change there, so it looks like this is what they meant.
