Robert Venable Park

Robert Venable Park is a 2.77-acre park in the City Line section of East New York, Brooklyn, bounded by Sheridan, Belmont, Grant, and Sutter Avenues. It honors Robert E. Venable (1952-1987), a New York City Transit Police Officer who was killed in the line of duty by drug dealers in East New York on September 22, 1987, and who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. Before his death, Venable, a single father and community volunteer, had organized local teenagers to help clean and maintain this very park.

East New York has been the focus of significant city attention in recent years, including a major rezoning plan intended to create thousands of units of affordable housing and improve neighborhood infrastructure. Parks improvements are a critical component of this investment.

The park features basketball courts, a playground, and open recreation areas. In a neighborhood where the ratio of park space to population is well below the city average, every acre of public green space carries outsized importance for the community's quality of life.

East New York's residents are predominantly African American and Latino, with a growing population of Caribbean and Central American immigrants. The park provides common recreation ground for these diverse communities in a neighborhood working to overcome decades of disinvestment.

Robert Venable Park serves the daily needs of a neighborhood that deserves the same quality of public space as any other part of Brooklyn. Its continued maintenance and improvement are essential to the broader effort to ensure equitable access to parks across the city.