Brooklyn’s Stoop is back — and just in time for winter!
The Borough Hall steps are back open to the public and Downtowners can once again chill out — now literally — at the iconic gathering place, which has been closed since June while city workers repave the surrounding plaza.
Parks contractors fenced off the treacherous space around the steps all summer while ripping up the crumbling bluestone tiles that have been a blight on the borough’s doorstep for years — tripping up pedestrians and presenting an embarrassing first impression to visitors.
The city is replacing the decrepit plates with tough granite tiles as part of an $11-million facelift of the plaza and Columbus Park, which is bounded by Joralemon, Court, Johnson, and Adams streets, and Cadman Plaza West.
Workers have now finished repaving a large swathe of the area in front of the People’s House and the sidewalk along Adams and Joralemon streets, but the entire project isn’t slated for completion until September next year — so pedestrians will still have to navigate around construction fences while trying to traverse the plaza.
Borough Hall and its surrounds are landmarked, but the old paving was only installed in 1987, making it no more historically important than the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge or Bananarama’s Dumbo-filmed music video for “Cruel Summer.”
Former Borough President Marty Markowitz nevertheless fought the idea of lining the streets with anything but bluestones, though his resolve wore down as the tiles did.
