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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Constance Lesold, Representative of Friends of Mount Prospect Park
3:27:05
ยท
3 min
Constance Lesold, representing Friends of Mount Prospect Park, testifies about protecting parks in Brooklyn, particularly opposing a proposed skateboard park in Mount Prospect Park. She emphasizes the importance of parks for various community activities and for immigrants.
- Lesold has worked on park issues in Brooklyn for over 50 years
- She founded a community garden over the Franklin Avenue shuttle to improve park access for children from various neighborhoods
- Lesold expresses concern about ICE activities in the city and their impact on immigrant families
Constance Lesold
3:27:05
afternoon, chairman Krishnan.
3:27:08
My name is Constance Lisold.
3:27:11
I have lived in Brooklyn most of over fifty years now.
3:27:16
And, I have worked on Park's issues during that entire time.
3:27:25
I am here first and foremost to represent the interest of those people on Eastern Parkway and, the friends of Mount Prospect Park who are desperate desperately trying to protect that park and prevent any funding for a skateboard park in that small park which is used for vast numbers of purposes including Easter egg hunts where they want to cement over a part of the park.
3:27:57
There is one skateboard park already in Community Board 8 where I used to be chair of the Parks and Recreation and Cultural Affairs Committee.
3:28:10
And there are no skateboard parks in many other parts of Brooklyn.
3:28:17
And we are doing our share.
3:28:24
I am founder of the community garden over the Franklin Avenue shuttle and, in that capacity is also chair of the transportation committee.
3:28:36
And why we founded that garden was so that children from East New York and other neighborhoods who would not be able to get to all the parks of Brooklyn without the shuttle would have a transportation that would take them everywhere to all the gardens.
3:28:57
I could go on and on.
3:29:02
That area I'm talking about along Eastern Parkway, everybody works together.
3:29:07
The Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, Mount Prospect Park, the community garden down the block.
3:29:14
And we need you to protect our gardens, not to cement them over, to stop any cementing over, to stop I started working on this thing over trees and founded the Eastern Parkway Coalition, which saved many trees and led to the landmarking of Eastern Parkway's scenic landmark.
3:29:36
So thank you for trying to help.
3:29:38
And I only want to say that I am sorry, chairman, to hear that your neighborhood is being visited by ICE heavily.
3:29:46
My in laws came from Hitler's Berlin.
3:29:52
And they were supported by, emotionally, by being able to go to the parks of Brooklyn, Prospect Park and others, while they were waiting to hear what happened to their relatives.
3:30:05
Please remember, as I know you do, the immigrants all over the city still need all these parks.
3:30:13
And I'm going to hand you this, which is a scene where a family that looked like an ordinary middle class family was being divided on the streets.
3:30:26
I don't know whether the father was taken off in a fire department ambulance for no good reason.
3:30:33
The mother was taken off in a police car and the two little children were taken off in a separate police car.
3:30:41
I don't know whether ICE was involved with this or was strict the seventy first precinct, and nobody wants to tell anything about why this extraordinary thing happened.
3:30:52
Please remember the immigrants and their needs for the gardens.
3:30:56
Thank you.