Greening the BQE, Part I

Yesterday's post about the plan to plop a park atop the "Trench" in Brooklyn got me thinking about some of the existing parks that sidle, if not straddle, the BQE. So, in honor of Spring-Easter-Passover-What-Have-You, we kick off a series on the green that graces the BQE.

Let's start in Woodside, more precisely, Winfield, with Crosson Green, a little triangle just south of Woodside Ave., formed by 68th St., the BQE, and the side of a house. The park is named for Rev. Matthew J. Crosson, a Woodside resident who served as a chaplain in the South Pacific campaign of WWII. The Reverend must have been well-liked, since his name adorns two of the six "sitting parks" created in 1955 when the City acquired land to widen the BQE (the other is Crosson Park).

Sitting park is about right, since there's no space to do anything else. Still you have your choice: you

Crossing 68th St.

can sit with your back to the BQE looking out at 68th St. or facing the BQE and the buildings on the other side of Woodside's version of "Trench."

(According to the Parks Department site, linked above, Father Crosson was known as "the Baseball Priest," because of his longstanding involvement with youth athletic leagues. Opening Day is just a day away!)