#prospect-park

#prospect-park

The whole world looks to New York City to usher in the new year each year at Times Square. But if you ask any native New Yorker, Times Square is not where we'll be on New Year's Eve, at least not out in the freezing cold. Between the never-ending crowds and being packed into metal pens for hours at a time, it's probably not the first place you'll want to take the kids.

The city will build Brooklyn's first " blue belt" - a "nature-based" flood management system that aims to manage stormwater and improve natural spaces - in the park, building on the Prospect Park Alliance's ongoing Lakeshore restoration projects. "This work means faster drainage, new rain gardens, restored wetlands, and nature-based flood protections that keep homes and streets dry," said Jeff Roth, Deputy Mayor of Operations. "This is government at its best, using science, partnership and shared purpose to meet the challenges of a changing climate."

"The forest has three layers," she said. "It has the herbaceous, the ground layer, the midstory and then the canopy trees, and to see all three layers being damaged was really difficult."

This week, lifelong Brooklynite Shelby White gifted the Prospect Park Alliance a $10 million endowment through the Leon Levy Foundation, which she founded in 2004. Brooklyn's tree canopy is our modern cathedral, reconnecting city dwellers to nature even in the heart of the busiest city in the United States,, said Morgan Monaco, president of the Prospect Park Alliance. It is vital for climate resilience, public health, and sustaining biodiversity, and today we celebrate a gift that will secure this legacy for the future.