Park Slope Library Could Get Storytelling Garden and Knuffle Bunny Statue View Full Caption

PARK SLOPE — Locals will soon get the chance to vote on whether they want an outdoor storytelling garden with a bronze statue of a bunny at the Park Slope public library.

The garden is one of several neighborhood upgrades that could receive funding through City Councilman Brad Lander's participatory budgeting program, which kicks off April 14.

Voters in Lander's 39th District will choose their favorites from a list of 13 possible projects, and the top five vote-getters will split $1.5 million in taxpayer dollars from Lander's discretionary budget.

Now in its fourth year, the citizen-led budgeting initiative has paid for several local improvements that were dreamed up by residents, from new computers at libraries to bathroom renovations at elementary schools.

The group Friends of Park Slope Library hopes to win $250,000 to transform the library's unused lawn into a mini oasis where produce would flourish in raised beds and children could listen to stories in a "micro-amphitheatre."

The tiny outdoor theater would have seating for about 25 kids, said FOPSL co-president Christopher Franceschelli. There would also be benches along a walkway where library visitors could sit and read in the fresh air.

“It’s something that I hope people can get enthusiastic about,” said Franceschelli. "I hope we really reclaim this little bit of land for these kids and for the community as a whole."

There are also plans to install a bronze statue of Knuffle Bunny, the star of the Park Slope-based children's book, "Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale" by former neighborhood resident Mo Willems.

“This little bunny is sort of the hero of Sixth Avenue, and it seems appropriate that he find a home on the library grounds,” Franceschelli said.

Other projects up for potential funding through participatory budgeting include the following:

► $325,000 to put an art installation inside the recently renovated Fourth Avenue-Ninth Street F/G subway station "to serve as a major landmark and a symbol of our neighborhoods' investments in the arts."

► $250,000 to add a kids play area to St. Mary's Park, the long-closed grassy area beneath the elevated subway tracks at Smith and Huntington streets in Carroll Gardens.

► $350,000 to replace broken pipes and restore water service to fountains at Thomas J. Cuite Park on 19th Street and 11th Avenue in Windsor Terrace.

► $230,000 to renovate the "decrepit" auditorium at P.S. 179 on Avenue C and East Third Street in Kensington.

Voting starts on April 14 and runs until April 19.

Voters can make their picks at several locations throughout Lander's district, which includes Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, parts of Kensington and Borough Park, and other neighborhoods.

Learn more about all of the projects on the ballot at a participatory budgeting expo at 6:30 p.m. on April 14 at Camp Friendship, 339 Eighth St.