Here's your chance as a Landscape Architect to hop on the bandwagon of a plan to improve the quality of many people's lives through the amenities of a beautiful park... right in the heart of Brooklyn, New York. If a local engineering consultant's ingenious plan is adopted, the children of Brooklyn's Sunset Park region may soon enjoy a pair of block-long "mini-parks" between 3rd and 5th Avenues, totaling 1.66 acres and built on platforms over the 39th Street freight tracks between 3rd and 5th avenues. Prepared for Community Board 7 by Gandhi Engineering, Inc., this proposal is currently under review by the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT). The New York City DOT is now finalizing plans to replace the 4th Avenue Bridge over the tracks. The "mini-parks" would extend east and west from the new bridge. The bridge is located very closely to the 39th Street exit ramp from the Gowanus Expressway, which is under rehabilitation by NYSDOT. Once a vibrant working-class neighborhood closely tied to the East River docks and the ferry terminal to Manhattan, the community went into a decades-long decline. And so, "despite its name. Sunset Park today actually has very little safe, recreational space available for the public, " observes C.B. 7 Chairwoman Beatrice De Sapio. The strategy could potentially solve two problems at once. C.B. 7 District Manager Gene Moore explains that it would create a substantial amount of extra parking space urgently needed for the DOT'S projects in the area; once those are finished, the platform could then be converted to provide new green space for a neighborhood currently experiencing a local "baby boom" of small children and young families. Still waiting for approval of NYSDOT, Gandhi Engineering's long-term plan envisions two Sunset parks flanking the 4th Avenue bridge, with access gates at the bridge's pedestrian walkway: "Park 1" would be 500 ft. by 75 ft. in size; and "Park 2" would be 347 ft. by 100 ft., providing a total combined area of 1.66 acres. A feasibility study conducted by the Gandhi firm on a probono basis estimates that the total cost for both, including landscaping, would be slightly over $8 million. Now, it would seem, all the project needs is to "stir up some Landscape Architects" to contribute their expertise... and to help make this a bonafide gem of a park system. THE 0.86-ACRE WESTERN PARK IS ONE OF A PAIR OF BLOCK-LONG, ON-STRUCTURE PLAYGROUND-PARKS PROPOSED FOR THE AREA. IF BUILT, THE PARKS WOULD PROVIDE MUCH-NEEDED RECREATIONAL FACILITIES, SUCH AS BASKETBALL COURTS AND SAFE, OPEN PLAY AREA, FOR THE SUNSET PARK NEIGHBORHOOD. Rendering by Paul Zablidowsky.