Brooklyn Heights playground renamed in memory of Beastie Boys’ Adam Yauch

Welcome to Adam Yauch Park.

Palmetto Playground in Brooklyn Heights has been officially renamed in honor of the late founder of Beastie Boys, Adam Yauch, who died on May 4, 2012, after years of battling salivary gland cancer. He was 47.

The Brooklyn native and graduate of Edward R. Murrow High School was honored with the playground renaming because of his impact “in the music business and beyond,” said Brooklyn Parks Commissioner Kevin Jeffrey at the renaming ceremony on Friday morning.

“Our city’s parks play a fundamental role in the social and physical development of young New Yorkers. Adam Yauch grew up playing [here] and we are very proud to honor his memory by naming this park after him,” said Jeffrey. “Adam’s legacy. . . will touch the lives of New Yorkers and visitors to Brooklyn Heights for years to come.”

Yauch was “one of Brooklyn’s most culturally influential sons,” said Borough President Marty Markowitz. “Yauch. . . was ahead of the curve, as both a talented artist who helped to change the face of music and, perhaps even more importantly, as an always socially-conscious, genuinely good person — ‘Too sweet to be sour, too nice to be mean.’ ” 

Joining Jeffrey in cutting the ribbon were Beastie Boys member Adam Horovitz, Yauch’s parents Noel and Frances Yauch, members of the Yauch family, Borough President Marty Markowitz, Councilmember Stephen Levin, and John Silva of Silva Artist Management.

State Senator Daniel Squadron also passed a Senate resolution in Yauch’s honor last year, noting that “Adam Yauch represents Brooklyn and New York in so many ways, for my generation and many others [because] the music and message of the Beastie Boys evolved over the years — but they can’t, won’t, don’t stop changing the face of hip-hop, of music, and of our culture.”

Yauch grew up playing in the park that now bears his name. he learned to ride a bike there, before eventually teaching himself to play bass in high school and teaming up with Michael “Mike D” Diamond and Adam “Adrock” Horovitz to found the Grammy-winning Beastie Boys.

In addition to founding Beastie Boys, Yauch was an advocate for Tibetan freedom, establishing the Milarepa Fund to produce Tibetan Freedom Concert benefits, and creating a film production and distribution company, Oscilloscope Laboratories.

Adam Yauch Park (formerly Palmetto Playground) is located in the southernmost portion of the neighborhood of Brooklyn Heights.  The playground includes full and half basketball courts, a community garden, a greenhouse, a small fitness area, an open play space, drinking fountains, and a dog run. The site boasts a great variety of trees for a relatively small property. Silver linden (Tilia tomentosa), London planetree (Platanus x acerifolia), pin oak (Quercus palustris), sweet gum (Liquidambar styraciflua) ,and Norway maple trees (Acer platanoides) flourish in and around the playground.