The Bishop, Parks & Corruption

"Queens Crap" just posted a stunning report on the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation's "interesting" relationship with the East Brooklyn Congregation's head bishop. Many people have wondered why this allegedly honest man did a complete 180 degree shift from his original position on not developing the reservoirs to cutting down the forest. Now we know:

"When the city sells you lots o'land for $1 (upon which you construct vast quantities of Brooklyn Crap) and then they call in a favor, you do what they ask, otherwise, you might get cut off..."

Read the entire exposé here.

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NY Daily News Article Follow-up

Denis Hamill just wrote a follow-up article to his piece blasting the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation for disgraceful conditions at park baseball fields. From the new article:

"Help is on the way.

Or so says Dorothy Lewandowski, Parks Department Queens borough commissioner, and Philip Sparacio, department chief of operations in the borough.

They have already responded to some of the issues raised in my recent column detailing the deplorable conditions of the Little League fields in Queens."

You can read the entire article here. Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski is quoted in the article:

"In Queens, we have under 500 full-time maintenance, recreation, administrative and forestry workers to service 7,000 acres in 400 parks and playgrounds, plus 350,000 street trees, and 800 planted triangles and 168 baseball fields"

This begs the question,; If there aren't enough workers to take care of the existing parks, why destroy the unique habitats at Ridgewood Reservoir to create another one?

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Ridgewood Reservoir hearing in Oak Ridge

The following was posted in the Queens Chronicle:

The final public hearing for plans to develop Ridgewood Reservoir has been scheduled for June 30 at Oak Ridge in Forest Park.

The Parks Department will present three development plans: preserving the site as a natural habitat; filling in the reservoir basins and replacing them with baseball and soccer fields; and a hybrid plan in which only one of three basins, the largest one, would be converted into a recreational sporting area.

The plans have been called into question in recent weeks after Parks officials cut funding for the project from $48.8 million to $19.8 million.

“If the reduction in funding is not restored or supplemented by another funding source, a new phasing strategy will be implemented,” Parks officials said in a statement.

Plans to raze the reservoir site and replace it with ballfields have sparked an ongoing battle between the city and preservationists.

Deactivated in 1989, the site has become a natural haven for plants, turtles, fish, frogs and more than 137 bird species — including eight rare species on the National Audubon Society’s “Watch List.”

The meeting is opened to the general public.

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Highland Park Children's Garden

I just received a copy of the Highland Park Children's Garden newsletter for early summer:

Highland Park Children's Garden Reader - Early Summer 2009

Overall spring was cooler than normal but most of our experienced gardeners realized you must plant as soon as possible for an early harvest. By mid-May almost all the plots were planted. We had sufficient rain - only had to use the hose once to fill the barrels. But by the end of spring we had one of the wettest!

Remember gardeners we need your cooperation and commitment. Please continue to care for your plots and the path. Keep the shed tidy and neat by putting tools and other items where they belong. Please do not allow children in the sheds. We have a total of 28 registered families. Please welcome our newcomers: Sam & Laura Franqui and 5 children, Doug & Theresa Cohn and 2 sons, Sabrina Hartzler and Melanie Peters.

WE HAVE A NEW COMPOST BENCH - thanks to Miguel, Domingo, & Frank Belizario. You can see it next to the compost tumbler.

PAST EVENTS:

The Secret Garden on Tues, April 14, was a big success and we hope it will return next year. What made this terriffic was the activities focused on gardening and nature.
The 3rd Annual Hoe Down was a success on Sat. April 18, where we had Boy Scouts from Troop 96, Cub Scouts from Packs 67 & 224 and Girl Scouts Troop 2503 as well as their parents to help divide plants and work on the compost. We are greatful for the gardeners who came out to clean the garden.
The Junior Garden Club held their 3rd season from May 2 - June 6 with an average of 15 children. This year we had 2 other gardening families participate besides the Moores. Among the participants were 3 homeschooling families from our homeschooling support group: LEAH - Loving Education At Home. We will have a fall session in Sept. & Oct. And yes, we will enter vegetables from the garden for the Queens County Farm Fair Contest. Our sponsor is the Independence Community Foundation. Register on Sat. Sept. 5, 10 -12. Starts Sat. Sept. 12, 10 -12.
Plant Giveaways from the Green Guerillas in early May were given to our new gardeners. Domingo Belizario went to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden/GreenBridge giveaway. Dennis and Lucienne went on 6/6 to the GreenThumb spring supplies pickup. They were stuck in a big line but received a hose, hoe, bags, pruner and gloves. They brought daylilies and irises which were happily received by the gardeners.
It's My Park Day and Weed & Feed #1 on 5/16 was well attended and the path looked great. Begonia and geranium cuttings were given out as well as tomato and celosia seedlings: 45 adults & kids attended. No Rain!
The 3rd Annual Strawberry Festival on 6/13 was a success. The garden looked pretty and clean. The strawberry patch had more flowers and berries. It was not as large and sprawling as the first two years and there were less exhibits. But was much cozier and was as fun as ever. Plenty of entertainment and things to do. As in previous years, the garden received a donation of flowers from the greenhouse which was distributed among the plots and other areas. We are grateful for these beauties.

The Children's Garden is participating for a 2nd year in the Garden to Cafeteria Program with P.S. 89. The students will be growing and harvesting in their plots as well as the Junior Garden plots. Again, we ask the gardeners participation in harvesting and placing in a box for them in Sept. Many gardeners have surplus in Sept. and this a worthy cause to show children a healthy diet.

The Children's Garden is an official site of the Great Pollinator Project which is sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History. Ms. Josephine Scalia asked Joshua Moore if he will be an official Bee Watcher and he said yes. All the Moores went to the Bee Watcher workshop at the Alley Pond Environmental Center. We received native plants for the Great Pollinator Project which are planted in the Bird and Butterfly section. However, the milkweed plants are in the milkweed section and the mountain mint is in the mint section. Our first watching session was on June 25th. Thank you Nayda for helping set up the project site.

The Urban Park Rangers will host several nature workshops in the garden starting on Tues. July 21. Further details to be announced.

Our next Weed & Feed is Sat. July 4th, 10 -2. Weeding the path is first. If time permits we can weed in other areas. Please bring something to share at the BBQ. Nayda will have a cooking demo.

Remaining Weed & Feed #3 is Mon. Sept. 7 and #4 is Sat. Oct. 24, 10 -2. The last one will focus on getting the garden ready for winter. Pre-register for 2010 in Oct.

FREE HIGHLAND PARK ACTIVITIES FOR SUMMER & FALL:

Co-ed Sports Clinics for ages 7 -14: Soccer, 10 - 12, Mon, Wed, Fri; Basketball, 10 -12, Tues, Thurs; Flag Football, 1-3, Tues, Thurs.
City Parks Foundation Tennis to age 17: 9 - 11, Tues, Thurs.
Yoga: Tues. 11 - 12 for Seniors; 12 - 1 for Teens. Ashford St & Jamaica Ave.
July & August Thursday evenings @7:30 Family entertainment sponsored by Councilman Dilan. Please check bulletin board. Wading/Performance area.
Aug. 29, Sat. 5:30 - Family Fun Night - activities plus a movie
Sept. 5, Sat. 10 -12 - Register for Junior Garden Club. 1st session on Sept. 12, 10 -12.
Sept. 27, Sun. 2 - Fall Bird Migration with the Urban Park Rangers. Elton St & Jamaica Ave.
Oct. 17, Sat. 12 - 3, Harvest Festival, Wading/Performance area.

LAST DAY TO CLEAN YOUR PLOT AND TURN BACK TO 3-4 ROWS IS OCT. 31.

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Channel 12 Story

Here's a report from Channel 12 News about Ridgewood Reservoir:



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Budget Cut Article

The Queens Chronicle has an article about the recent budget cut to the Ridgewood Reservoir plan. City Comptroller Bill Thompson is quoted in the article. Unlike the mayor and parks commissioner, Comptroller Thompson views the 2030 plan as it should be seen - a complete waste of taxpayer's dollars:

"City Comptroller Bill Thompson shot down proposals by Mayor Mike Bloomberg to convert the reservoir into a sports field last June, citing the ecological importance of the space.

“This plan flies in the face of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s widely hailed environmental blueprint, which bemoans the loss of the city’s natural areas,” Thompson wrote, protesting the plan. “The Parks Department’s own scientific consultants have warned against disturbing the reservoir, an area they call ‘highly significant for the biodiversity of New York City and the region.

You can read the entire article here.

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Final Listening Session

This note from the parks department just arrived:

Parks is pleased to announce a fourth community meeting to discuss community ideas and concerns for the Ridgewood Reservoir PlaNYC Project. The meeting will be held on Tuesday, June 30th at 7:00PM at Oak Ridge in Forest Park.

The meeting is intended to summarize what we have learned at the previous meetings, and to relay the results of the paper surveys that have been distributed over the past weeks.

Here is a map to Oak Ridge:


View Oak Ridge in a larger map

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NYC Park Advocate article

Crain's New York Business just published an article on park advocate Geoffrey Croft. Geoffrey is a really important voice for New York City's residents and gave our group much needed advice when we first began organizing:

An army of one
By Daniel Massey
Published: June 14, 2009 - 5:59 am

Geoffrey Croft wolfed down a plate of rice and beans last week and hustled to City Hall, where he told a NY1 reporter that the new High Line elevated park in trendy Chelsea was getting more than its fair share of security guards. The camera had barely stopped rolling when he dashed around the corner to a press conference on the city's plan to allow private schools to pay for special access to ball fields on Randall's Island. “This is outrageous,” he said, echoing one of his signature refrains. “We need to stop this.”

You can read the article in its entirety here.

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Mayor's Wacky Priorities

Patrice O'Shaughnessy wrote a revealing piece about Mayor Bloomberg's bizarre priorities. His idea for the Ridgewood Reservoir's future is just one more example of his ridiculous vision for NYC:

Mayor Bloomberg's priorities out of whack
Tuesday, June 16th 2009, 4:02 AM

Years from now, people will look back in awe at the Alice's Wonderland that New York is becoming before our very eyes.

To build a billion-dollar major league ballpark, they took away Bronx parkland from kids.

Randalls Island is not for people in upper Manhattan and the South Bronx, but for elite private schools to use, because they pay for the privilege.

Ten years and $172 million went into building an elevated strip of park - the Highline - in Chelsea, which consists mostly of weeds poking through the ruins of railroad tracks. There are more dedicated park enforcement officers assigned there than to all of the Bronx, according to an advocacy group.

They shut down blocks of a major traffic artery in the heart of Manhattan so people can lounge in beach chairs on Broadway.

More and more, it feels like "Alice in Wonderland," but underlying the absurdity, it's like a tale of two cities, a story of the haves and the have-nots.

Geoffrey Croft, president of NYC Park Advocates, had another literary reference.

"The Emperor's New Clothes," he said of elected officials' unquestioning acquiescence to the Bloomberg administration steamroller.

"They are destroying much of our parks system," Croft said. "It's out of control."

Consider the parks that the city gave to the Yankees so it could erect the new stadium and massive parking garages.

Three years after construction of the new ballpark began, none of the permanent parks that the city promised to replace Macombs and Mullaly are there.

The Department of Parks and Recreation had promised that seven of the eight replacement parks would be done in time for opening day. The schedule was pushed back, and a report by the Independent Budget Office revealed that costs had ballooned from $116 million to close to $200 million.

But Croft predicted, "Taxpayers will pay close to $400 million to replace parks that the city should never have taken."

And Heritage Field, a public park with baseball and softball fields, to be built on the site of the old stadium's diamond, isn't expected to be ready until the autumn of 2011. The old stadium hasn't been torn down yet.

"It troubled me that they could knock Shea down before the first pitch at the new Stadium," said Sean Sullivan, principal and assistant baseball coach of All Hallows High School on 164th St.

"And here, we still have two stadia on 161st St."

His baseball team ended the season with a 2-16 record (most games were lost by one or two runs), due to the youth of the team, but it didn't help that there wasn't enough practice time, due to lack of a field.

The diamond they had always played on vanished with the rise of the new Yankee Stadium.

"It was difficult to play home games in Staten Island," said Sullivan. "It was bizarre.

"We had an interim park for practice at 161st St. and Jerome Ave., but everyone was there. People were driving golf balls," said Sullivan.

"But now, that's been ripped up," he added.

Croft said he watched two weeks ago as that park was destroyed to make way for a five-story parking garage.

"Seventy percent of the mature trees in Macombs and Mullaly parks were destroyed," Croft lamented.

Maybe the kids in the Bronx should head on down to Times Square with balls and bats and play right there in the street.

Broadway is now closed for five blocks running through the Crossroads of the World.

The reasoning was to ease midtown traffic congestion. (It took me just 25 minutes to get from 12th Ave. to Sixth during the first week of the plan!)

But the real reason is to keep the tourists happy.

It's great that people from across the nation and the globe want to visit New York.

But do we really need to inconvenience people who live and work in the city?

Yes, the out-of-towners need to plop down and sprawl out after all the stress of seeing "Mamma Mia!" They are exhausted from all the New York things they've experienced, like visiting the Hard Rock Café, and shopping at The Gap.

They need a place to relax.

How about Central Park? Or the Highline? Or any of the other green gems throughout the city?

But don't look for a shady place to stop near 161st St. You can go to the new mall at the ballpark, though, with Applebee's, Babies R Us and Bed, Bath & Beyond.

Yes, 10 years from now, we'll be looking back at former Mayor Bloomberg's absurd remaking of a city of unique character to one big homogenized mall, where the tourists feel right at home because it is exactly the same as their hometown.

Oh, wait. Bloomberg will probably still be in office, trying to close off E. Tremont Ave. to all but tourists in horse-drawn carriages.

poshaughnessy@nydailynews.com

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NY Daily News Article

Denis Hamill of the New York Daily News just wrote an article lambasting the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation for their "selective" maintenance of baseball fields:

Parks Department is a disgrace to city
Tuesday, June 16th 2009, 4:07 AM

The Parks Department should be ashamed.

If you want to see the arthritic hand of your government at work in the city's parks, become a Little League dad like me.

In the past two years, I have been on almost every sandlot in eastern Queens, as my kid has played for a Little League team and a CYO baseball team, in spring, summer, and fall seasons. We've played in Cunningham Park, Alley Pond Park, Harvey Park, McNeil Park, Golden Fields, Crocheron Park, College Point Fields, Flushing Park, Peck Park and more.

And I am very sad to report here that almost every single field is a disaster.

Every coach and parent I've talked to who uses these public fields - where our children are supposed to learn, love and excel in the great American pastime of baseball - says the same thing: The Parks Department is a DISGRACE!

Read the entire article here. Keep in mind when you read the article that the Bushwick Baseball Team told the parks department at the last listening session that, "If you just took care of the fields that we already have in Highland Park, you wouldn't need to build any in Ridgewood Reservoir." Out of the mouths of babes.

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BushwickBK Article

Diego Cupolo of BushwickBK wrote a really good article about last night's meeting and presentation by Steve Nanz:

"There are yellow-billed cuckoos, black-cap chickadees and ferocious snapping turtles living right in our backyard and local environmentalists credit the Ridgewood Reservoir for the area’s unusually diverse ecology. To prove the point, the Highland Park/Ridgewood Reservoir Alliance invited wildlife photographer Steve Nanz to share his pictures of the many species that have settle down in this accidental, but endangered nature reserve."

You can read the entire article here.

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Parks Department Inequities

The following is another article that illustrates how the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation unfairly distributes its limited resources to the wealthiest neighborhoods. As millions are being spent on this 2 1/2 acre park, the city refuses to lay out any money to fix the dilapidated ball fields at Highland Park.

Advocates for other parks angered by extra security for new High Line
By Joy Resmovits, Kenny Porpora and Erin Einhorn
Daily News writers

Wednesday, June 10th 2009, 5:14 AM

Manhattan's new celeb-backed park in the sky is getting more security resources than other, more sprawling parks in other boroughs, parks advocates charge.

"It's outrageous," steamed Geoffrey Croft of the nonprofit NYC Park Advocates. "One park is being adequately secured with taxpayer money while the rest of the park system is abandoned."

Parks officials counter that the High Line, which opened to the public Tuesday, is a special case.

The unique park lifts visitors 2-1/2 stories above the street in the path of an old elevated train trestle in Chelsea.

"Like many Parks facilities, including swimming pools and beaches, the High Line requires special attention," Parks Department spokeswoman Jama Adams said. "It is 30 feet in the air and has limited capacity and specific access and safety requirements."

She adds that the police patrol every city park and distribute security resources as needed.

Croft, and a leader from the union that represents patrol officers and rangers who do educational work, say the resources for the High Line underscore inequities in the park system.

The city has assigned 11 patrol officers and seven other eyes-and-ears workers to the 3-acre High Line. That's compared to 15 patrol officers, 17 rangers and 56 enforcement workers in all of the Bronx, which has thousands of acres of parkland.

"It's great that they have this amount of personnel at this park but ... the numbers [of safety workers] have dwindled citywide," said Joe Puleo of the urban park rangers union.

Rangers and patrol officers can make arrests and issue tickets for offenses, but Puleo said rangers are mostly charged with educating parkgoers and giving tours.

Brooklyn has 23 patrol officers and 130 other safety and educational workers, the city says. Queens has 18 patrol officers and 121 other workers. Staten Island has 13 patrol officers and 57 other workers and Manhattan's total, including the High Line, is 43 patrol officers and 153 others.

Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said the High Line is a "great deal for the city" because most of the ongoing expenses will be covered by contributions to the private Friends of the High Line, which will raise and spend $2 million a year.

Among celebrities who've supported that fund are designer Diane Von Furstenberg and her media mogul husband, Barry Diller, who this month made a $10 million contribution.

Parkgoers interviewed in the Bronx say they feel slighted.

"We can't send kids out to the park alone and feel safe," said Clarence Collins, who was visiting Crotona Park in the Bronx. "Don't let [patrol officers] be down there just because that's where the politicians and the people who vote for them are. If they're on the city payroll, they should be allocated throughout the neighborhoods."

eeinhorn@nydailynews.com

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More Brilliant Planning by Parks

The following article just appeared in AM-NY:

Air quality a concern at parks near busy streets
By Ryan Chatelain

At a ground-breaking last September, officials touted how CaVaLa Park, with its centerpiece 113-foot-long sculpted fountain, would soon serve as a striking gateway for people entering Manhattan through the Holland Tunnel.

But what can those looking outward from the half-acre park — on a triangular swath of land where Canal, Varick and Laight streets converge — expect when it opens this fall?

An endless string of noisy cars? A tunnel spewing polluted air a block away?

“Depending on where the air patterns are, you could be literally in the choking area,” said Michael Seilback, senior director of public policy and advocacy for the American Lung Association in New York.

The close proximity of many New York City parks to congested roadways has existed about as long as traffic itself. But even some new parks are being built in areas where the air might be less than pristine.

For example, in replacing parkland lost in the construction of the new Yankee Stadium, the city placed an artificial-turf soccer field atop a public parking garage used on game days. The South Bronx has one of the country’s highest rates of childhood asthma.

Daniel Kass, assistant commissioner of the city Department of Health’s Bureau of Environmental Surveillance and Policy, cautioned against concluding that air quality near busy streets or tunnels is worse than in other parts of the city.

“The reality is that we don’t know enough about how air quality varies in this city,” Kass said. “Some things are not necessarily intuitive. You could be running next to a highway along a river, and depending on the prevailing winds, the air quality could be substantially better than it could be elsewhere.”

Environmental impact studies are conducted before new parks are built, noted Philip Abramson, a spokesman for the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation.

Some New Yorkers, however, weren’t so sure that the air is safe.

“It’s not that healthy,” said Ben McDougald, 71, as he power-walked around the rooftop soccer field near Yankee Stadium, which partially opened last month. “But here we don’t have much of a choice.”

Those exercising near high-traffic areas may be at a greater risk of inhaling polluted air. The American Lung Association estimates that an endurance athlete, such as a marathon runner, breathes in up to 20 times as much air as someone at rest.

Poor air quality can contribute to heart disease, lung cancer and asthma attacks, researchers say.

The issue presents a catch-22 of sorts: Green spaces, after all, produce oxygen, which helps clean the air.

Geoffrey Croft, president of the watchdog group NYC Park Advocates, blamed poor city planning for hundreds of parks near congested streets.

“When they laid out our city, from 1811, the parks weren’t planned for,” Croft said. “We’ve been paying that price for a very, very long time.”

One thing the article didn't point out was that the Department of Parks and Recreation seems to be installing artificial recreational surfaces throughout the 5 boroughs at a much faster pace than the Mayor is able to plant trees. Someone also needs to look at how much more heat is being released into NYC's atmosphere once natural vegetation is replaced by plastic carpeted fields.

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Meeting & Presentation

Join us this Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 7:00pm for a slide presentation of the wildlife of the Ridgewood Reservoir. Nature photographer, Steve Nanz, will share his photographs of the birds, insects and other animal life that he has observed at the reservoir.

The meeting is free and opened to the public. Refreshments will be served.

The show will be followed by our regular monthly meeting.

Highland Park/Ridgewood Reservoir Alliance
Ridgewood Democratic Club
6070 Putnam Street


View Larger Map

Directions to The Ridgewood Democratic Club at 6070 Putnam Street. The
entrance is the first door on Stier Place

From Brooklyn:
Take Eastern Parkway until it ends at Bushwick Avenue.
Make a right turn onto Bushwick Avenue and move to the left lane.
Bear left onto the Jackie Robinson Parkway (formerly Interboro)
Exit at Cypress Hills Street (2nd exit)
At the top of the exit, make a left onto Cyrpress Hills Street
At the bottom of the hill make a left onto Cooper Avenue
Make a right at the 5th block (62nd Street)
62nd street ends in 2 blocks at Myrtle Ave
Make a left turn onto Myrtle and the make a right turn (about 50 feet) onto Fresh Pond Road (just at the end of the underpass; Fresh Pond starts at Myrtle and there is a carpet store on the right)
About 1/4 mile, 1 block after the M train station, Putnam Street is on the left.
It’s one block after the train station

From Manhattan:
Take the LIE
Exit to The Grand Central Parkway East (towards LI)
Stay in the right lane and exit onto the Jackie Robinson Parkway (formerly
Interboro)
Exit at Cypress Hills Street
At the top of the exit, make a right onto Cypress Hills Street
At the bottom of the hill make a left onto Cooper Avenue
Make a right at the 5th block (62nd Street)
62nd street ends in 2 blocks at Myrtle Ave
Make a left turn onto Myrtle and the make a right turn (about 50 feet) onto Fresh Pond Road (just at the end of the underpass; Fresh Pond starts at Myrtle and there is a carpet store on the right)
About 1/4 mile, 1 block after the M train station, Putnam Street is on the left.
It’s one block after the train station

From The Bronx:
Take the Triborough to the Grand Central Parkway and follow directions above
Parking can be sometimes be difficult in the area

By Subway:
Take the M train to the Fresh Pond Station or the L train to Myrtle Avenue and
then go upstairs and take the M to the Fresh Pond Station
Walk one block to Putnam and then left onto Putnam.

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Daily News Article

The New York Daily News picked up on our posting about the facilities use permits at Highland Park and published an article on May 22nd entitled "Preservationists at odds with city over ballfields in Ridgewood Reservoir".

"The City Parks Department has exaggerated the need for new ballfields in the forests of Ridgewood Reservoir, preservationists charge, pointing to newly unearthed documents."

Read the entire article here. Writer John Lauinger interviewed the only community leader who supports the ballfield plan:

"Everybody that we have talked to has said, 'If you want to give us anything in that reservoir, give us fields for active recreation," said Bishop David Benke, head of the Lutheran Church in the eastern region of the state."

Fortunately, Benke's allegations of wide support don't match what the parks department's own design team's surveys discovered or what two years worth of community listening sessions revealed.

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Upcoming Area Tour

On Saturday, June 13th, Charles Monaco and Rob Jett will lead a walk through Ridgewood and Highland Park. The walk will highlight both the rich American history and natural history of this area. Meet at the "J" train station on the corner of Cleveland Street and Fulton Street at 11am.

Charles, an area historian, will focus on the area's importance during the Battle for Brooklyn, its settlement, the creation of the neighborhood of Highland Park and the building of the Ridgewood Reservoir. Rob will point out the plants, insects and birds while describing the area's unique location along the Harbor Hill terminal moraine. The walk will last for approximately 2 hours and gradually work its way through some historic sites in Ridgewood, up to Highland Park, then around the Ridgewood Reservoir. Wear comfortable shoes.


View Ridgewood in a larger map

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