In the good old days in brownstone Brooklyn, winter was a sensation for the cross-training athlete. When ice and snow transformed pavement to peril, I went skating before work at the outdoor rink in Prospect Park. Long before I saw my first rat, I considered myself one: a rink rat. M and I grew up skating, and from the 90s until 2010 in the winter it was a special joy.
Now, though, even the real rats don’t come to Wollman Rink, Brooklyn. That’s because that fond ramshackle barn was demolished to make way for what politicians and civic boosters alike said would be a world-class ice palace. Twin ice surfaces, with dramatic views of The Lake in Prospect Park.
Ha! It’s now three seasons and counting with no rink, much less two. Deadlines have come and gone, and there’s no telling when there will be ice skating again in Prospect Park. Street views of the building project itself are blocked by iDesign-like hoarding boards that promise: “Lakeside Is for Skating; Lakeside Is for Ice Hockey; Lakeside Is for Nature; Lakeside Is for Learning . . .”
But a view from the hill that overlooks the building site in winter, without leaves on the trees that have been brutally thinned by a series of storms in recent years, suggests a different story. There is no work going on, only a concrete shell of a structure in place.
The truth is, Lakeside Is for Boondoogle.
So, again, there will be no wintertime ice skating in Prospect Park for athletes like me. Or for children, their parents. And as Valentine’s Day approaches, for lovers, either.
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