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opposed to the commercial encroachment of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.
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Is It Safe?

2/2/2013

 
To The Editor [Queens Tribune 1/24/2013]:

In response to your article and editorial in the Jan. 10-16 issue regarding the proposed MLS stadium in FMCP, where’s the incentive for Major League Soccer to enter into a straight-forward business arrangement with the Mets organization when seemingly they have been promised acres and acres of Flushing Meadows Corona Park land for free? If someone in the City offers to give away Queens parkland to a private commercial developer, can offers for Central, Prospect or Van Cortlandt Parks be far off? Is any park land safe from development? There are obvious alternate locations for a Queens soccer stadium in Willets and College Point Industrial areas or Aqueduct, but the catch is the land will not be free.

Arne Abramowitz
FMCP Administrator
1986-1993

Queens Chronicle Editorializes against Soccer Stadium

1/31/2013

 
Flushing Meadows soccer stadium must be stopped [Queens Chronicle] 1/31/2013

Major League Soccer is doing its best to rush a misguided plan to build a stadium in Queens through all the hurdles it faces before Mayor Bloomberg leaves office. It cannot be allowed to succeed.

League officials have been given every opportunity to be forthcoming about the important details of their proposal and to counter their critics, and they refuse to do so. A similar project they got approved in Harrison, NJ, just over the Hudson River, has failed to live up to its promises and ended up shorting that town’s taxpayers at least $3.6 million.

And, above all, their plan for a stadium in Flushing Meadows Corona Park would severely damage what remains the crown jewel of Queens, without enough benefit to residents.

The deal MLS seeks with the city would be a steal, literally, in all but the legal sense. It wants a $1 a year lease for up to 13 acres of public parkland — the classic deal politicians and private for-profit businesses cook up behind closed doors to take the citizens’ property without compensation.

That deal, which must be stopped, is at the heart of why MLS is in such a rush. If it doesn’t get public land essentially for free, the league will have to buy the 10 to 13 acres it needs for a 25,000 seat arena on the open market.

All that the public would get in exchange is 13 acres of new parkland somewhere else —but not all in one chunk — and the rehab of some existing soccer fields at Flushing Meadows, which should be a city job anyway. MLS also says it would invest tens of millions of dollars in the park, but it’s vague as to how and where, as it is on so many details, even when its president met with us last week.

One of the most frustrating vagaries is the league’s site selection process. MLS is dead set on building a stadium in Flushing Meadows, mostly because the land would be free but also because there are so many Latin Americans in nearby neighborhoods and soccer is such a force in that culture, and because of all the transportation options that get people to the park. But we don’t see why a stadium couldn’t be considered for any number of other locations, such as Aqueduct Race Track or the old Flushing Airport, and MLS has not been forthcoming in what other sites it rejected or why.

We are not against soccer in Queens; in fact we would welcome it. We are against giving away our parkland. Imagine, as crazy as it sounds, that this project had been proposed for Central Park. Of course it would be rejected out of hand. But if the mayor wants a stadium, maybe he should consider putting it there, in his own neighborhood’s crown jewel park.

Another major concern with the proposal is the question of team ownership, one of many issues discussed in this week’s Queens Chronicle story “MLS to Queens? Stop by Harrison, NJ first.” The league has yet to select an owner for the team it would locate here, but that means accountability would be hard to pursue should any problems arise as the stadium is built. And the one possible owner that’s been reported on in the press is an Arab oil sheik, a prospect we find troubling. If a Queens soccer team were to go belly up, as two MLS teams have in recent years, what would he care about an empty stadium nearly half a world away?

Standard political practice means there is one person who could stop this project today if she wants to: City Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras, whose district includes the northern section of the park. She should see this proposal for the land grab that it is. If she says no to it, the rest of the Council will follow suit, and the plan will be denied — if MLS doesn’t just give up on its own first. We urge you to call Ferreras at (718) 651-1917 or (212) 788-6862, or email her at jferreras@council.nyc.gov, and tell her to keep our park in our hands. MLS can come back with a better site any time.

Queens CB7 meeting

1/31/2013

 
Queens Community Board 7's Parks Committee held a meeting on 1/23/13.  CB7 isn't concerned with losing parkland -- only with what USTA will "give us" in return. USTA won't replace the parkland it's taking, but will substitute improvements to the park.

When asked what improvements, USTA and the NYC Parks Dept. said they don't know, and they won't know until the fate of the MLS proposal has also been decided, because only then can the improvements be apportioned between USTA and MLS. When asked, "What's the USTA budget for these improvements?" the USTA said it doesn't know.  So, USTA is proposing to compensate for the parkland with improvements to other areas of the park, but USTA will not even say what amount is reasonable.  If a decision-maker is asked to approve this, isn't he/she entitled to know what USTA considers the value of the parkland to be?

That USTA and Parks came to the meeting tonight without such information, shows their inconsideration for CB7. Parks said it's difficult to appraise the value of parkland, because there's no market.

This, despite the USTA lease establishing a value.

USTA said that this expansion is necessary to, among other reasons, ensure that the U.S. Open does not lose top players to other up-and-coming foreign venues/tournaments that could be more lucrative.

So, the value of the 0.68 parkland acre USTA wants, is intended to provide nothing less than the successful continuation of the U.S. Open -- which rakes in $275 million annually to USTA. As such, that 0.68 acre is exceptionally valuable to USTA, and must be compensated on that basis.

Another CB7 meeting will be scheduled for late February, when USTA is expected to "bring the number." The whole CB7 board is scheduled to vote on March 11 (should also be a public hearing that night).

Straight Talk: Parkland Theft

1/24/2013

 

When 'public use' costs $66/hr

1/23/2013

 
Interesting article from Capital New York, entitled, A tennis-center expansion in Queens requires a tricky definition of 'public':
Flushing Meadows Corona Park is the biggest park in the borough of Queens, but it's probably not the nicest one.

Surrounded by highways that render it inaccessible to the neighorboods that surround it, the park is underfunded and inconsistently maintained, replete with patches of dirt and stagnant water, bottle caps and spindly trees, and Worlds Fair relics that the city has let go to seed. 

The park, as a result of the neglect, is particularly vulnerable to being nibbled away at by land-hungry tenants.

The Wilpon family and Related Companies want to build an enormous mall on its paved-over northern reaches, Major League Soccer wants to take up 13 acres for a new stadium, and the USTA wants to make its 42-acre, gated tennis complex bigger.

Whenever a city in New York State wants to take public parkland and sell or lease it to a private entity, it has to get the state legislature to pass "alienation legislation."

The state recommends, but does not require, that the entity for which the parkland is being alienated replace it with a comparable amount elsewhere.

That's a recommendation the city generally follows.

And that's why Major League Soccer is busy scouring the borough for 13 acres of parkland to make up for the plot it wants to take in the middle of Flushing Meadows Corona Park.

That's also why, in 1993, when the USTA expanded its footprint in the park from 21.6 acres to 42, it had to build the 48-acre Powell's Cove Park in College Point, according the Parks Department.

This time, however, the department is not demanding replacement parkland of the USTA. Instead, it's asking for money.
Further in the article, we read the following:
Courts at the U.S.T.A.'s publicly accessible tennis courts range from $22 an hour on weekdays between 6 and 8 a.m., to $66 an hour on weekends, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

It costs just $15 to play on regular Parks Department tennis courts, and just $200 for the entire season, unless you're a senior, in which case it costs only $20 per season. If you're younger than 18, it costs only $10. 

"It is significantly more costly than other Parks Department tennis facilities and it is not as open and welcoming to the public as other park space is," Leicht said. "I think it’s disingenuous to say this is a truly public use.”

“It’s not public space,” agreed Michael Rikon, an attorney with experience in land-use matters. “If the public wants to get in there, they’d have to pay a lot of money. ...That’s hardly the same as free access to the community.”
Ladies and gentlemen, it's not truly "public use" unless it's freely accessible.

Just How much land are we talking about?

1/19/2013

 
Picture
The FMCP land grab would privatize an area the size of Juniper Valley Park in Middle Village - 55 acres
The total amount of land for the 3 land grabs at Flushing Meadows total ~56 acres.  Here are some other Queens Parks comparisons that give an idea just how big the parkland theft would be:

Astoria Park is 59.96 acres.

Juniper Valley Park in Middle Village is 55.25 acres.

Roy Wilkins Park in St. Albans is 53 acres.

Queens County Farm Museum (on NYC parkland) in Bellerose is 47 acres.

Crocheron Park in Bayside is 46 acres.

Udalls Cove in Douglaston/Little Neck is 31 acres.

The FMCP land grab clocks in at:

Just a shade under 2x as much parkland as MacNeil Park (29 acres) in College Point.

A little more than twice the size of Francis Lewis Park in Whitestone (17 acres).

4.5 times more parkland than Bowne Park in Flushing (12 acres).

And, just for good measure: the amount of land wanted for private interests at Flushing Meadows is the same size as the Great Lawn in Central Park (55 acres).

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