Greenbacks for Greenway

February 27, 2005

CARROLL GARDENS/COBBLE HILL COURRIER

Brooklyn Greenway Initiative (BGI) is the recipient of a $40,000 grant from the New York Foundation, one of the first foundations in the United States. The New York Foundation was established in 1909 with a gift of $1 million from Alfred M. Heinsheimer, part of a bequest he had received from his brother Louis. Its founding documents list general philanthropic purposes, but its name has always signaled a special concern for New York City. This first philanthropic gift was augmented by two additional gifts: one of $2.4 million from Lionel J. Salomon, restricted broadly to the benefit of the young and the elderly, and the second even larger bequest of $6 million from the estate of Alfred M. Heinsheimer in 1929.

The Foundation supports groups in New York City that are working on problems of urgent concern to residents of disadvantaged communities and neighborhoods, and believes the vitality of its neighborhoods is the city’s greatest resource.

This is the largest foundation grant to date supporting Brooklyn Greenway Initiative’s mission of creating a waterfront greenway that will eventually extend from Greenpoint to the Shore Parkway Esplanade on the Bay Ridge waterfront. “The Greenway will have such a revitalizing, transformative effect on such a diversity of neighborhoods it touches, we are proud to have New York Foundation recognize this and partner with us to accelerate making it happen,” says Brian McCormick, Chairman of Brooklyn Greenway Initiative.

With the announcement last year that Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez had secured $16.6 million dollars in federal transportation implementation funds from the Transportation Equity Act (TEA-LU), the greenway is now poised to enter the design-engineering phase. This follows completion of the conceptual plan for the greenway, funded by a grant from the New York State Department of State’s Local Waterfront Revitalization Program, sponsored by Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz.

Support from the New York Foundation lifts BGI to a new plateau in achieving both the construction of the greenway and the development of a stewardship program that assures it is maintained at a high standard once built,” says Milton Puryear, Director of Planning for BGI.