A Park Grows in Bushwick

Maria Hernandez Park occupies about 3 blocks in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, between Irving and Knickerbocker Avenues and Starr and Suydam Streets. Across Irving, there is an elementary school, P.S. 123. Across Knickerbocker, there is a recently opened bar. Starr Street is a hotspot in the neighborhood's flourishing art scene, and on the corner of Irving and Suydam is an excellent taqueria. Maria Hernandez Park occupies a central geographic location in the rejuvenation of Bushwick, and the park's story is much like that of the neighborhood's as a whole.

The park was founded in the late 18oos, and was known as Bushwick Park. The park survived as the neighborhood went through drastic changes. The last of the 11 breweries that used to occupy the area closed in 1976, and in 1977 hundreds of homes and businesses were destroyed or damaged due to looting during the blackout. The once-solid neighborhood decayed, and Bushwick Park decayed with it, full of broken glass and debris and graffiti.

In 1989, the park was renamed to Maria Hernandez Park after a local activist who died for her efforts to rid drug dealers from the area. She organized community efforts to evict drug dealers from their apartments. She was shot five times through the window of her Starr Street apartment on August 8, 1989. That same year, the park was renamed in her honor.

Five years later, the park was cleaned and repaired, with new benches and fixed-up ballfields. In 2006, the park was named New York City's Park of the Month. It received a new basketball court, new fences, and a stage for performances. Now, at all times of the day, there will be children on the playground, or teenagers playing basketball or wallball on the courts. In the summer, the park plays an integral role in block parties. It could be an example in a revised Life and Death of Great American Cities.