Walt Whitman Park Finally Loses Its Parking Lot

Last October the Daily News reported that the city would finally begin to remove the fences, dig up the asphalt and reseed Walt Whitman Park, off Cadman Plaza East next to the OEM Building in Downtown Brooklyn.

Now, almost a year later, the asphalt and fences have come down.

The city gave the long-neglected park to the feds for use as a parking lot while the new federal courthouse was being built. In return, federal officials gave the city $3.9 million to fix the park up once they were done with it.

Before the fenced in parking lot was built, volunteers planted bulbs of daffodils and grape hyacinth around the trees and throughout the park. (Pre-OEM, when the building belonged to the Red Cross.) Now huge cement planters -- aimed at protecting the OEM building from terrorists? -- cut the park in half.

Let's see what our $3.9 million buys.

Photo by MK Metz