Enlarge this image

The Brooklyn Paper / Allyse Pulliam

These two Brooklynites celebrated the end of the judges’ auto occupation of Columbus Park in the only way they could, by recreating Alfred Eisenstaedt’s famous VJ Day photo.

Enlarge this image

The Brooklyn Paper / Sarah Portlock

Judges had been parking at the northern end of the park, and in another pedestrian walkway, which are both now open to the non-motorized.

Similar stories

Brooklyn Angle: Judge for yourself — Abe speaks

Brooklyn Heights: It’s un-American! Judges turn park into a foreign car lot

Fort Greene: ‘Dance’ line! Palestinian protesters object to high-stepping Israeli troupe at BAM

Downtown: Judges end ‘Park’ perk (well, sort of!)

Editorial: Paper says: Bring back our trolleys

Judge allows a ‘lot’ more parking

Tools

Print this story

digg

del.icio.us

Email a friend

Your name

Your email address

Recipients’ email addresses (Up to ten, separated by commas.)

The occupation is over!

Judges and other state Supreme Court employees moved their cars back to their refurbished parking lot in Columbus Park on Wednesday morning, three months after seizing a pedestrian walkway at the northern end of the park as a temporary lot.

Construction crews installed an entrance into the judge’s original parking lot near the corner of Joralemon and Adams streets — itself part of Columbus Park — so that the jurists could drive directly into the lot from Joralemon Street instead of driving on a bluestone-tiled pedestrian pathway and using it as an overflow lot.

During the occupation, the city fenced off what had been a pedestrian-only area and barred the public from walking from Borough Hall and the state Supreme Court building toward the General Post Office and other points north.

Acting Administrative Judge Abe Gerges said on Wednesday that he happy that his judges could move into their new lot, particularly because it resolves his security concerns.

“Everybody’s satisfied,” he said. “There is an issue of security. And we are back in our secure facilities.”

Park goers and pedestrians were overjoyed to have their space back. One couple, goaded by a Brooklyn Paper photographer, even recreated Alfred Eisenstaedt’s famous photo from V-J Day in 1945.

“I’m happy — I thought it was going to be taken away from us forever,” said a Downtown resident, Samuel Valley.

“It was annoying to inconvenience the public so the judges can have an easier commute,” added a DUMBO resident named Matt.

The area wasn’t supposed to be a parking lot at all — it is actually zoned as parkland. Office workers, residents and pedestrians need the open space more than the judges need it for parking, park advocates said.

When the city was building a new courthouse nearby in 1999, then–Administrative Judge Michael Pesce told community leaders that his judges would park in a new lot inside that building. That never happened, however.

— with Zeke Faux

©2009 The Brooklyn Paper

Links