The New Brooklyn Bridge Park...

...should be called Governor's Island.

The park is free, the ferry is free.

It's an island surrounded by the cooling breezes of NY Harbor which, I might add give you all the easy feeling of being at the beach, minus getting in.

It partly belongs to the National Park Service with rangers and everything, including historic forts.

It's a historical landscape, with a 92-acre National Historic Landmark District and New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission Historic District.

There are acres of lawns -in the sun and under huge trees. Because the island has been underused, the grass is quite nice, even under the trees.

Many of the big trees are labeled (who did that?).

There are historic homes you can simply walk into, doors are open.

You can bike around it.

You can walk around it.

There are no dogs -so no poop, relax in the grass without giving it a thought. Walk in the grass with your shoes off.

• There is culture coming from Creative Time, the Sculptor's Guild, Childrens Art Museum, Figment, and in the future, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Its all over the place and at times, surprising. There's also scheduled music, performances, and events that will only become more frequent as people learn about the island.

• You can get as close as possible to the Statue of Lib without actually going to its island.

• There are NO CARS.

• There are lots of birds to see

• It's quiet in the mornings, very peaceful.

What does it need?

Lose the helicopters. Constant helicopters. This has been a plague on our ears since the middle nineties and has gotten worse every year. Governor's gets tons of low-flying helicopters overhead. Lose em!

More real bathrooms, less porta potties with excellent real estate.

Ferry service from Brooklyn all the time, not just on event days!!

• Bring in the cooks from Red Hook soccer fields to add to the jerk chicken food stand (tasty, inexpensive) in the Nolan Park area and you may just get a foodie crowd.

• Get busy with revamping the facilities for even more things to do. To keep up with what's going on, the island has a blog.

• Set up a kayaking/canoeing dock if there isn't one already. The Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance is on it -City of Water Day.

• Have it open to the public more often: Governors Island will be open every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from May 30th through October 11th. On Friday, the Island is open from 10 AM to 5 PM; on Saturdays and Sundays, the Island is open from 10 AM to 7 PM.

NYC bought this parkland for a dollar. Imagine if we built a simple water's edge promenade on the Brooklyn waterfront, forget the piers, the real estate development, all the trouble and used some of that dedicated BBP $350 million for hourly ferry access, 7 days a week, and other recreational support services on Governor's Island, which is just yards away from Brooklyn.
Who needs Brooklyn Bridge Park underneath the the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, when this first class park is just another few feet away. Wouldn't that be a better return on our initial dollar investment?