New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. and environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. today called on the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation to reconsider plans to replace nearly half of the Ridgewood Reservoir on the Brooklyn-Queens border with sports fields.

In an opinion piece published in The New York Times, the two warned against destroying “this extraordinary natural habitat.”

“This plan flies in the face of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s widely hailed environmental blueprint, which bemoans the loss of the city’s natural areas,” the wrote. “The Parks Department’s own scientific consultants have warned against disturbing the reservoir, an area they call ‘highly significant for the biodiversity of New York City and the region.”
Thompson is New York City’s 42nd Comptroller. Kennedy is a lawyer for Riverkeeper, an environmental group.

The 50-acre reservoir, which sits on the border of Brooklyn and Queens, was built in 1858 to provide drinking water to Brooklyn residents. It was converted as a back-up reservoir in 1959 and taken offline in 1989. Since then, trees, plants, turtles, fish, frogs and more than 137 bird species, including eight rare ones identified on the National Audubon Society’s “Watch List,” thrive on the land.

However, the Parks Department is considering a $50 million “renovation” project that would replace a large swath of Ridgewood wilderness with sports facilities athletic fields. The agency claims the project is necessary to help combat child obesity.

“This is an important objective, but money…could be better spent improving Highland Park, immediately next to Ridgewood Reservoir,” the two wrote. “Highland Park has plenty of ball fields to serve its neighborhood, but they are in such deplorable condition that few people use them.”

Additionally, the two recommended that the trail surrounding the perimeter of the reservoir should be upgraded with benches and rest areas as well as signage calling attention to its unique flora and fauna, and asked that the Parks Department to open areas of the reservoir for guided nature walks.

“Ridgewood Reservoir offers visitors a rare chance to lose themselves in a forest, to hear bird song, to touch wilderness and to sense the divine,” they concluded. “The city shouldn’t let that slip away.”

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