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This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
| Shirley Chisholm State Park | |
|---|---|
 The Pennsylvania Avenue section of the park in 2019; the Fountain Avenue portion is in the background. | |
Location within New York City | |
| Type | State park |
| Location | Spring Creek, Brooklyn, New York, United States |
| Coordinates | 40°38′35″N 73°52′32″W / 40.643082°N 73.875685°W |
| Area | 407 acres (165 ha) |
| Created | July 2019 |
| Operator | New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation |
| Open | All year, 9 a.m. to dusk |
| Status | Open and Active |
| Website | https://parks.ny.gov/parks/200/details.aspx |
Shirley Chisholm State Park is a 407-acre (1.65 km2) state park in southeastern Brooklyn, New York City. It is bound by Belt Parkway and Spring Creek Park to the north and Jamaica Bay to the south, situated atop the former Pennsylvania Avenue and Fountain Avenue Landfills. The first sections of the park opened in 2019.
Located on the site of the former Pennsylvania Avenue and Fountain Avenue Landfills,[1][2] Shirley Chisholm State Park covers two peninsulas south of the Belt Parkway. The western peninsula, between Fresh Creek to the west and Hendrix Creek to the east, is located just south of Starrett City. The eastern peninsula, between Hendrix Creek to the west and Spring Creek to the east, is located south of Gateway Center and the neighborhood of Spring Creek.[3][4] The park is named after Shirley Chisholm, who represented the area as the first black U.S. congresswoman, and later became the first black female to seek a major-party nomination for U.S. president.[2][5][6]
At 407 acres (165 ha), the park is the largest state park in New York City. In addition, it is the third-largest park in Brooklyn, behind Marine Park and Prospect Park.[3] The highest point in the modern-day state park is on the Fountain Avenue Landfill at 140 feet (43 m) above sea level.[7] The terrain of the park was intended to withstand the high winds in the Jamaica Bay estuary.[8] From the park, the Empire State Building is visible to the north, Jamaica Bay is visible to the south and the Verrazzano–Narrows Bridge is visible to the west.[9]
The initial phase cost $20 million and includes 10 miles (16 km) of bike paths and hiking trails, waterfront access points, and a pier at the head of Pennsylvania Avenue on the western peninsula.[4][6] Shirley Chisholm State Park also includes a "bike library" operated by Bike New York, which allows park users to borrow refurbished bikes for free, and a mural of Chisholm created by Brooklyn artist Danielle Mastrion.[6] The second phase of the park opened a few months later with an entrance on Fountain Avenue, as well as additional educational programming.[3][10][11]
Before development, the site of this park was mostly marshland and water. However, in 1930, Spring Creek Park and the Shore Parkway portion of the Belt Parkway were proposed by Robert Moses, along with several other parks and highways.[12][13][14] Accordingly, in August 1942, the New York City Planning Commission and Board of Estimate approved a project to dump landfill on the site as part of the city's post-World War II program to create parkland on the site.[15]
Filling at the Pennsylvania Avenue Landfill began in 1956, while the Fountain Avenue Landfill began operations in 1961 or 1963.[16][17][18] At the height of usage, more than 8,000 short tons (7,300 t) of trash arrived daily at these two landfills, with nearly 40 percent of the city's refuse.[7] Throughout the landfills' operation, waste oil and other hazardous materials such as PCBs were dumped in the landfills,[19][20] resulting in the spread of respiratory diseases among residents of nearby Starrett City.[21] In 1972, the Gateway National Recreation Area was established by the National Park Service around Jamaica Bay. The two landfill sites were included in the Gateway Area in 1974.[22][23] As part of creating the preserve, the Department of Sanitation was contractually bound to close and cap both landfills by 1985.[22][24] By 1974, plans emerged to eventually turn the landfills into parks.[25] The Pennsylvania Avenue Landfill was closed in 1979, at a time when it was receiving 1,000 to 2,000 short tons (910 to 1,810 t) of municipal waste every day.[26] The Fountain Avenue Landfill was closed in December 1985.[7][23]
The landfills were declared a Superfund site around 1990, and in 1991 the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP) assumed responsibility for the cleanup of the landfills.[27] In 1995 Jamaica Bay residents, concerned about health implications of the runoff from the landfills, reached an agreement with the city for the dumps' rehabilitation.[28] In 2002, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection commenced site remediation at a cost of US$235 million including the installation of a below ground barrier and an impermeable cap to support future use,[1] along with a layer of new soil planted with 33,000 shrubs and trees.[18] Following the opening of Gateway Center mall on the site in 2002, The Related Companies constructed an addition to Spring Creek Park circumscribing the mall, opening on May 2, 2003.[29] Afterward, the first tree seeds on the site were planted in the Pennsylvania Avenue Landfill with a density of 800 to 1,000 per acre (2,000 to 2,500/ha).[30] Over 1,200,000 cubic yards (920,000 m3) of fresh soil was spread across the landfill at a depth of up to 4 feet (1.2 m), and some 35,000 plantings and grassland species were placed in the soil.[31] Hendrix Creek was also cleaned up by the NYCDEP.[32]
In his State of the State address in January 2018, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced his intent to build a 407-acre (165 ha) state park along 3.5 miles (5.6 km) of the Jamaica Bay coastline, adjoining the Pennsylvania Avenue and Fountain Avenue landfills.[33] The site would receive a $15 million renovation with paths, concession areas, restrooms, and recreational facilities designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Landscape Architects. The state would work with the city and National Park Service on the project.[34] The state park was dedicated to Shirley Chisholm that September.[5][35] Another $20 million was allotted to the park in April 2019.[36]
On July 2, 2019, the governor and other public officials representing the park site attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Shirley Chisholm State Park, officially opening the park to the public.[3][10][11] The first portion of the park comprises the Pennsylvania Avenue Landfill; the second portion, the Fountain Avenue Landfill opened a few months later. At the time, the park was expected to be completed by 2021.[4] The Engineering News-Record gave Shirley Chisholm State Park an "award of merit" for landscape design in November 2021.[8] The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) gave Shirley Chisolm State Park and its landscape architect, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, an Honor Award for Urban Design in 2022.[37]
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Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
Shirley Anita Chisholm ( CHIZ-əm; née St. Hill; November 30, 1924 – January 1, 2005) was an American politician who, in 1968, became the first black woman to be elected to the United States Congress. Chisholm represented New York's 12th congressional district, a district centered in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn for seven terms from 1969 to 1983. In 1972, she became the first black candidate for a major-party nomination for President of the United States and the first woman to run for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. Throughout her career, she was known for taking "a resolute stand against economic, social, and political injustices", as well as being a strong supporter of black civil rights and women's rights. Born in Brooklyn, New York City, she spent ages five through nine in Barbados, and she always considered herself a Barbadian American. She excelled at school and earned her degrees in Brooklyn and at Columbia University. She started working in early-childhood education, and she became involved in local Democratic Party politics in the 1950s. In 1964, overcoming resistance because she was a woman, she was elected to the New York State Assembly. Four years later, she was elected to Congress, where she led the expansion of food and nutrition programs for the poor and rose to party leadership. She retired from Congress in 1983 and taught at Mount Holyoke College while continuing her political organizing. Although nominated for the ambassadorship to Jamaica in 1993, health issues caused her to withdraw. Chisholm was posthumously awarded both the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal.
In 1968 Shirley Chisholm became the first Black woman elected to Congress, and in 1972 she was the first Black major party ...
Shirley Chisholm State Park is a 407-acre (1.65 km2) state park in southeastern Brooklyn, New York City. It is bound by Belt Parkway and Spring Creek Park to the north and Jamaica Bay to the south, situated atop the former Pennsylvania Avenue and Fountain Avenue Landfills. The first sections of the park opened in 2019.
This item is a photograph of President William J. Clinton greeting Shirley Chisholm, Ambassador-Designate to Jamaica, in the Oval Office of the White House. The image was photographed by Robert McNeely.
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Shirley is a 2024 American biographical drama film written and directed by John Ridley. The film stars Regina King in the title role, alongside Lance Reddick, Lucas Hedges, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Christina Jackson, Michael Cherrie, André Holland, and Terrence Howard. It depicts the 1972 presidential run of Shirley Chisholm, who was the first Black woman to be elected to the United States Congress. Shirley had a limited theatrical release in the United States on March 15, 2024, before its streaming debut on Netflix on March 22, 2024.
Uzoamaka Nwanneka "Uzo" Aduba ( ; born February 10, 1981) is an American actress. Her accolades include three Emmy Awards and five Screen Actors Guild Awards, in addition to nominations for three Golden Globe Awards and one Tony Award. She is one of only two actors to win an Emmy Award in both the comedy and drama categories for the same role, the other being Ed Asner. Aduba has appeared in films including American Pastoral (2016), My Little Pony: The Movie (2017), Candy Jar (2018), Steven Universe: The Movie (2019), Miss Virginia (2019), National Champions (2021), and Lightyear (2022). She gained wide recognition for her role as Suzanne "Crazy Eyes" Warren on the Netflix original series Orange Is the New Black (2013–2019). Her performance won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series in 2014, an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2015, and two SAG Awards for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series in 2014 and 2015. In 2020, Aduba played Shirley Chisholm in the Hulu miniseries Mrs. America, for which she won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie and the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Movie/Miniseries. In 2021, she starred in Lynn Nottage's play Clyde's on Broadway for which she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. Aduba starred in the 2025 Netflix series The Residence, earning a nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series at the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
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