Restoring Brooklyn’s Pastoral Heart
As reported in today’s New York Times, two new skating rinks, one covered and one outdoor, are set to open in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, just before Christmas. Before the first bulldozer or architectural renderings, the Prospect Park Alliance through the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation retained ARA to conduct a market study of demand for ice skating and other uses of rinks in the Park. Starting with 602 interviews onsite at the Kate Wollman Memorial Rink (built in 1961), ARA determined that 24 Brooklyn zip codes accounted for 90 percent of the skaters. ARA then conducted 657 telephone interviews with skaters and non-skaters in selected zip codes in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens. The study found that there was strong demand for both an outdoor and indoor rink. At least one member of 24 percent of households in the primary Brooklyn market had skated in the past five years. In 41 percent of those households, both a parent and child skated while in 18 percent it was the child only. Adult-only skaters skaters constituted the remaining 41 percent of skating households in Brooklyn.
Among skaters, 66 percent of adults skated once a month or less frequently. Male teens were the most frequent skaters with 23 percent skating once or more a week, twice the rate of female teen skaters (13 percent). The vast majority of skaters participated in recreational ice skating. One-fifth of male skaters in their teens played ice hockey. Figure skating was more popular among females of all ages.
ARA congratulates the Prospect Park Alliance, along with the city and state, and Leon Levy Foundation, for its foresight and persistence in bringing to fruition this magnificent restoration of the heart of the Park.