After numerous delays, Red Hook’s four baseball fields next to the Rec Center are now deemed safe and are open to the public. They had been closed in 2015 due to a Gannet newspaper story that tipped the EPA to look for lead in the soil—which they found.
A big change is that the natural grass ballfields have been replaced with synthetic turf. This is standard practice for the Parks Department these days. The fields were also raised a bit to alleviate flood problems in case of another hurricane.
I’ve been to the fields, and they look great, but so far I’ve only seen a few people using them. That may be because of the cold weather but there’s no guarantee that they’ll get more use in the spring either.
“Right now there aren’t any plans for Little League Baseball to return to the Red Hook Ballfields for this season,” said Viviana Gordon of the Red Hook Community Justice Center (which had helped sponsor the Red Hook Little League prior to 2015.) “We’re hoping that it can start back up again in 2023.”
I spoke to an official from the NYC Parks Department who also told me she wasn’t aware of any plans to have baseball teams play at the fields this year. However, she said that it isn’t too late to apply for permits if anyone is still interested (these can be found by going to the NYC Parks website and searching for field and court permits.)
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For now, there are no bases or baselines at the ballfields, but there are soccer nets. I’ve seen a few people playing soccer on the fields and a few people letting their dogs run around on the turf. It is somewhat ironic that nobody planned for a season once the fields reopened.
One person who would like to change that is Ray Hall, who was involved in the Little League program for kids in Red Hook before the fields closed down. He co-founded Red Hook Rise in 1994 which sponsors local basketball tournaments.
“I want the kids here to be able to play baseball again,” Hall said. “I’m supposed to have a meeting with officials from the Parks Department and it got pushed back because of COVID, but I’m expecting to talk with them soon so I’ll find out more then.”
In addition to the ballfields re-opening, the Red Hook Recreation Center re-opened on January 24th. The recreation center initially closed when a boiler sustained damage during Hurricane Ida in September. The recreation center now has a temporary boiler and has resumed normal business hours.
During its closure, it was especially tough for some of the seniors in Red Hook, who relied on the Recreation Center for exercise.
“I have health issues that made it tough for me travel so it was really disappointing and tough for me to get to the Sunset Park Rec Center [which is located 7.2 miles away from the Red Hook one,” said David Small, a Red Hook resident. “It feels like Red Hook hasn’t gotten proper representation because other rec centers opened up while the Red Hook one stayed closed. Everything has been moving so slowly but this is good news.”
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