Betsy Head Park in Brownsville Reopens after $30M Renovation

After a multi-year, $30 million upgrade, Brownsville’s Betsy Head Park has opened to the public with The redesign of the park was completed in November 2020 and includes an amphitheater athletic fields, a fitness course, a skate park and a renovated comfort station.  It is one of the largest public space investments in Brooklyn.

The renovation of the 106-year-old Betsy Head Park is part of a $150M investment by the de Blasio administration in capital improvements to five large parks across each of the city’s boroughs.  The five “anchor parks,” as the administration refers to them, were selected because of their size, the communities they serve, and the breadth of their amenities.   “This is about fairness,” de Blasio said when announcing the program in 2016. “We talk about fighting inequality. This is one of the most basic ways to do it. Let’s remember that for so many New Yorkers, parks are not just a place they go for a little exercise or a walk. For a lot of New Yorkers, this is where they spend their summer vacation.”

In 2018, a report from the nonprofit New Yorkers for Parks found Brownsville’s parks were not meeting the neighborhood’s needs, and called for increased investment in open spaces.  The city broke ground on the renovation Betsy Head Park in March 2019.