Tony Hawk’s in for a tough crowd at his show at the Beacon Theater Thursday night.
A few angry Brooklynites are planning to gather outside the skateboarder’s show to jeer his plans for a skate park at Mount Prospect Park.
Locals say the plan — backed by Hawk’s nonprofit — will destroy their precious greenspace.
“We’re out there tonight to try and get a clear message to Tony Hawk, as leadership for this project,” Hayley Gorenberg, the co-chair of Friends of Mount Prospect Park, told The Post Thursday.
The group will take its concerns to the Upper West Side, where Hawk is set to appear for his one-night show, “Darkslides and Secret Tapes.”
They plan to chant a ditty to the tune of “Old MacDonald”: “Tony Hawk can save our park, save our green space now!”
The jeer continues: “Skatepark Project holds the key, stop the paving now! With your lobbyists here and your PR firm there, use your fame, change the game, show us you’re a hero!” the catchy bit continues.
Hawk’s Skatepark Project is a major backer of the $11 million plan to put skateparks in all five boroughs – including the 40,000 square foot Brooklyn Skate Garden, which is set for Mount Prospect Park.
Gorenberg and other residents, however, have risen against the plan, which they claim will cripple the area’s most vital greenspace.
“It is our green space and it is well loved and it is well used. It is rare…and we don’t want any of it paved,” Gorenberg told The Post in February, a few weeks after Mayor Eric Adams unveiled the plan.
“Brooklyn is the most heavily paved borough per person, with the least greenspace per person in New York City. All of it needs to be preserved,” she added on Thursday.
Gorenberg is hopeful that Hawk will hear the group’s complaints, particularly because he positions himself as a climate activist.
“In recent memory, our neighbors have drowned in their basements from flooding, which is only getting worse because we are so over-paved,” she told The Post.
Gorenberg also pointed out that New York City is home to some of the country’s worst “heat islands,” or spaces where the temperatures are notably hotter due to urban development.
“Right next door to the park there is a cooling center in the library, because the heat is so dangerous,” she noted.
The neighborhood’s elected official, Council Member Crystal Hudson, has not been receptive to the group’s complaints, Gorenberg said.
“This plan has been in place for years, but we only just heard about it….when they released a press release a couple of weeks ago,” Gorenberg’s co-chair, Ben Lowe, claimed in February.
A March 25 district meeting on the skate garden plan quickly descended into chaos, with boos and other remarks flaring up despite Hudson’s call for order, the Brooklyn Reader reported.
In a statement to The Post, Council Member Hudson called the Friends of Mount Prospect Park’s claims that her office has stonewalled their attempts to negotiate “patently false.”
“It’s been made clear to them, repeatedly, that this project will result in more trees being planted in the park than currently exist; no current functions will be disrupted before, during, or after construction of the skate park, including off-leash dog walking hours and playground access,” the council member said.
“The park’s current persistent flooding and drainage issues will be permanently addressed by this great investment in our community; and, the skate garden will certainly not result in the paving over of the park as they disingenuously suggest,” the office added.
The Friends of Mount Prospect Park offered Grand Army Plaza as a possible relocation option.
But the skate garden cannot go on Grand Army Plaza – or in Prospect Park, which is a separate space – because both are landmarked, a source with City Hall told The Post.
“One of the core promises of this administration has been to deliver services to New Yorkers from every background,” said Ya-Ting Liu, the City’s Chief Public Realm Officer.
“This proposed project does exactly that– creating a green space where kids and families can safely practice their sport in a welcoming spot away from traffic and under bridges, while New Yorkers and pet parents can enjoy Mount Prospect Park in the exact same way they always have.”
When reached by The Post, the Department of Parks and Recreation deferred to City Hall on the issue.
There are also area residents who support the plans for the skate garden.
“I am excited for the Brooklyn Skate Garden and an upgrade to an underserved Mount Prospect Park that can benefit more New Yorkers than it currently does,” said Michael J. Sclafani, a third-generation local who owns the nearby skate shop, Park Deli.
“I think having a first-of-its-kind Skate Garden will bring a much-needed oasis for skateboarders and families while at the same time adding to the cultural institutions of Crown Heights.”
Gorenberg pointed out that the Friends of Mount Prospect do not have issues with skateboarding itself – quite the opposite.
In the group’s latest official email, Gorenberg included a grinning photo of herself learning how to skateboard from Skatepark Project Olympian and coach Alec Beck.
Speaking with The Post early Thursday, Gorenberg said that the perceived conflict between the Friends of Mount Prospect Park and skateboarders is “needless” and “fabricated.”
“There are skate spaces a few blocks from here, that are just swaths of sad concrete and asphalt, that skaters complain are substandard,” she said.
