The Bronx and Its Parks: Imagining Possibilities
NY City Lens
By Ayana Osson
What could the Bronx waterfront look like if it was designed with its people in mind? And what can be done to rejuvenate the borough’s dilapidated and underdeveloped parks?
Questions like these fired up an enthusiastic crowd of 350 guests at the 21st annual Bronx Parks Speak Up! conference on Saturday. Bronx residents and members of park advocacy groups cheered as they heard testimonies, proposals, and speeches about improving the borough’s public spaces, from elected officials like Parks and Recreation Commissioner Mitchell J. Silver and City Council Member Andrew Cohen. And the enthusiastic audience clapped and cheered as they heard about changes and proposals for changes for the parks in their borough.
For example, Mychal Johnson, co-founder of South Bronx Unite, a coalition of South Bronx residents, and organizations and their allies, spoke passionately over a series of colorful renderings filled in with bright hues of green and blue—part of a proposal to rebuild six waterfront locations in the South Bronx. The renderings showed what the Bronx waterfront would look like if it wasn’t lined by old industrial buildings.
