July 20, 2018 By Tara Law
Community leaders and representatives from the New York City Housing Authority unveiled a newly renovated basketball court at Astoria Houses today.
The renovation, which was funded by a $600,000 allocation by Councilmember Costa Constantinides, included the repaving and repainting of the court, as well as the installation of steel benches, a water fountain, an electronic scoreboard and shot clock.
Officials and community members gathered at Astoria Houses today to mark the reopening of the court.
Constantinides thanked NYCHA for working with him on the project, as well as Claudia Coger, president of the Astoria Houses Tenant Association.
“This beautiful, state-of-the-art basketball court will provide generations of Astoria Houses residents with a safe environment to gather and play,” Constantinides said. “Three years after we first secured funding for this much-needed refurbishing, I am happy to see this is a slam dunk for the community.”
Coger said that she was excited that the project had finally come to fruition.
“It’s been a long time coming. It’s been a lot of work, it’s been a lot of hands in the pot, but we have arrived,” Coger said. “The Council Member has been excellent, that he’s given us his attention here not just by words but by deeds. He has stuck to his word. And we are still going forward. There’s a lot more to come.”
Although the basketball court is open, Astoria Houses residents can expect to see other changes on the housing complex’s property in the near future.
Construction on an adjacent multipurpose sport court will begin this fall.
4 Comments
Please renovate the Ditmars park and get rid of the homeless that sleep there.
Itd be nice if someone would do something about the basketball courts on 36th st and 20th ave. Every summer day they run the sprinklers for the kids, the basketball courts get flooded from the sewer drain.
call your counsel person for this and pray he is not doing another photo-op
Just imagine the mosquitoes. Something needs to be done about it.