To: Brooklyn Botanical Garden
Roses for All! Bring back the Tuesday and Saturday Free Hours at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden!
The Brooklyn Botanical Garden has cut it's open admission hours from 12 hours a week to just 4, with no free weekend access for working folks, and no free after school hours for young people. This is unacceptable. We demand that, at minimum, the BBG restore it's previous open admission hours.
Why is this important?
I am heartbroken that the Brooklyn Botanical Garden has practically erased it's free admission hours. My high school students used to go after school on Tuesdays to sit under the cherry blossoms. Families used to spend Tuesdays, and Saturday mornings wandering the paths, their children delighting in wonders we city folks can't normally access. We have to raise our standards; it is not okay for our cultural institutions to be available only to the economically privileged. When I was a kid, the garden was free to all, every day. My mother still remembers the day, right after they began charging, that a big family turned away in disappointment, unable to afford entry. Free hours only on a Friday morning mean that no working person can go, and no young people can go. This is unacceptable! I have lived in Brooklyn my entire life, and been a member of the garden for the last four years. It is one of my favorite places. And I miss the sweetness of the Tuesday scene when the garden filled with families, youth, couples on dates. This is a plea to fix this wrong immediately; please BBG, be the community resource you are meant to be. Do not participate in discrimination!