Cooper Park Houses Gets Some Closure after 15 Years
“Stop playing ping-pong with my residents. NYCHA says it’s the City’s responsibility. Then the City says it’s NYCHA’s . Let’s get this done!” stated Julia Amanda Foster (Cooper Park Residents Council President)
What does it take to get a pothole in the sidewalk repaired in Williamsburg Brooklyn? The huge pothole in the Cooper Park Houses development so far has taken 15 years, which includes a letter writing campaign started 4-years ago by Cooper Park Residents Council President Julia Amanda Foster. However, it wasn’t until Council Member Antonio Reynoso told the City he would fill in the pothole himself that he was assured a crew would be sent out August 21st to do the work.
“We are actually here for a good story but it was many years of a bad story,” said Councilman Reynoso at the beginning of his #RallyingforRepairs in front of Cooper Park Houses Senior Center. He continued, “For over 15 years the Department of Transportation and NYCHA couldn’t figure out who was responsible for repairing a sidewalk. A sidewalk many of our seniors here had to use as an obstacle course or use another route – a longer route — to get to their senior center. Where children could’ve fallen in and hurt themselves. I threatened to fill in the potholes, fill in the sidewalk myself with help from my staff, and we were going to do it today. Yesterday we got a call from the city of New York that it would get fixed. That DDC (NYC Department of Design and Construction) will come and start work on it Friday. It shouldn’t take 15 years and a threat from a local council member to finally get results for the people of Cooper Park.”
The pothole is right in the middle of a walkway intersection so it is particularly impassible for those with walkers or in wheelchairs. You can also see how in the winter the hole would fill with ice and become a dangerous mini ice pond.
There are other damaged sidewalks throughout the Cooper Park Houses development that need to be repaired. Council Member Reynoso said, “I had to negotiate to get this done. Next year we are going to make sure we are on the list and that every single pothole sidewalk pothole repair happens, but we need to take care of the emergency cases first.”
The Greenline 