"MLS has been, along with the two other projects proposed for Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, a gigantic boondoggle that Mayor Bloomberg has pushed to become one of his legacies," stated Paul Graziano, a co-founder of Save Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, a coalition of community-based civic and environmental groups opposed to the continued commercial encroachment of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.  
 
"As everyone in Queens - except for most of our elected officials - seems to know, the proposed site was a terrible location for any sort of stadium, as it would have horribly impacted the park as well as sat directly on top of the Flushing River, which the Fountain of the Planets currently is sited.
 
"As advocates specifically for Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, we are hopeful that we are seeing the last of this awful proposal and that it will evaporate back into thin air where it came from. All told, this project, along with the USTA expansion and the proposed Willets Point West mall would have allowed over 50 acres of our parkland to be taken from us and handed to private corporations and /or billionaire friends of Mayor Bloomberg's for free, shortchanging the citizens of our city by stealing precious and irreplaceable parkland.
 
"As it stands, this situation potentially removes one of those threats from gobbling up over a dozen acres of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. However, we must remain vigilant to make sure that there will not be another proposal for this site - or any others - and stand strong against the two other proposed projects to make sure they never become a reality."

There will be a Community Board 7 public hearing this Monday night regarding Willets Point / Willets West mall.  The public is encouraged to testify.  This past Wednesday, the Land Use Committee of CB7 rejected the proposal with a "NO" in a landslide 7-2 vote, but the vote Monday is the one that counts.

What: Community Board 7 full board meeting
Date: Monday, May 13th
Meeting Time: 7:00pm
Place: Union Plaza Care Center, 33-23 Union Street, Flushing, NY 11354
Sign up to speak upon entering.

The application is being portrayed as a "minor amendment to the previously-approved project" -- but it obviously is not. The effect of the amendment is to nearly double the size of the project from 62 acres to 108.9 acres, and to prioritize the construction of a previously undisclosed 1.4 million square foot mall on public parkland that is presently a Citi Field parking lot. If you thought the original Willets Point development was a monstrosity, this is no comparison ...

The Queens Borough President and Community Board were promised a hand in selecting the developer for the project, but they were not consulted before Sterling/Related was chosen by the Bloomberg administration.  If they had been involved, perhaps a proposal that did not take public parkland would have been selected.
 
It also is not likely that the City Council will call up the project, hear testimony and publicly debate it.  Again, the project is being framed as just a "minor amendment to the previously-approved project," but the previously approved plan did not involve a mall, the Mets parking lot, or mapped parkland.
 
Here is an article from this week's Times Ledger newspaper, which reveals that the City and the developers are aware that parkland alienation is involved in this proposal: First Willets plan called for parkland swap.  Here also is a list of alternate proposals rejected by the City that would have spared parkland.

From the Daily News:

A Queens lawmaker is in talks with the city to create a public-private alliance to fund the upkeep of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

City Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras (D-East Elmhurst) said such an alliance could solicit donations from Queens residents and businesses for the borough’s 1,255-acre, flagship park.

It could also eventually seek a cut of the rent paid to the city by Citi Field and the U.S. Tennis Association, which are located in the park, she said.

“Flushing Meadows-Corona Park has not received the attention and resources it deserves,” Ferreras told the Daily News on Wednesday. “We get such a small percentage of the dollars that are generated by our park reinvested into our park.”

Geoffrey Croft, president of New York City Park Advocates, said if an alliance profits from the stadiums located within its perimeters, this could create an incentive to rent out more parkland to other private companies.

“It is the elected officials’ job to adequately fund public parks — not private businesses,” he said.

A city Parks Department spokesman said the idea is under serious consideration.

“Public-private partnerships create significant benefits for both parks and their visitors,” an agency spokesman said in a statement. “These partnerships, which exist in parks throughout the city, help to connect people, engage community members, provide programming, and keep parks clean and beautiful.”

Save FMCP encourages the public to testify against the USTA expansion at the City Planning Commission hearing this Wednesday, April 24th at 10am at 22 Reade Street in Manhattan.  The official announcement is below:

USTA BILLIE JEAN KING TENNIS CENTER 
CDs 3, 4, & 6-9 C 130155 PPQ

PUBLIC HEARING: 

IN THE MATTER OF an application submitted by the NYC Department of Parks and 
Recreation (DPR) and the USTA National Tennis Center Inc., pursuant to Section 197-c of the 
New York City Charter, for the disposition of a lease of city-owned property to the USTA 
National Tennis Center Inc. located northerly of United Nations Avenue North, between 
Meridian Road, and Path of Americas (Block 2018, p/o Lot 1) within Flushing Meadows-Corona 
Park. 

(On April 10, 2013, Cal. No. 6, the Commission scheduled April 24, 2013 for a public hearing 
which has been duly advertised.) 

Close the hearing. 
__________
NOTICE 

On Wednesday, April 24, 2013, at 10:00 a.m., in Spector Hall, at the Department of City 
Planning, 22 Reade Street, in Lower Manhattan, a public hearing is being held by the 
Department of Parks and Recreation in conjunction with the above ULURP hearing to 
receive comments related to a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) concerning a 
disposition of non-residential City-owned land at the USTA Billie Jean King National 
Tennis Center (NTC), located in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens. The NTC is 
located on a portion of Queens Block 2018, Lot 1, on park land leased by The City of New 
York Department of Parks and Recreation to USTA National Tennis Center, Incorporated 
(USTA). The leased site is bounded to the north by the railway tracks of Long Island 31 
Railroad (LIRR)’s Port Washington line; United Nations Avenue North to the south; the 
Passarelle Building and Path of the Americas to the east; and Grand Central Parkway to 
the west. The proposed actions would facilitate a proposal to improve and expand USTA 
facilities, collectively known as the NTC Strategic Vision. To accommodate the proposed 
project, up to 0.94 acres of land would be added to the NTC site, including up to 0.68 acres 
of park land that would be alienated. Written comments on the DEIS are requested and 
would be received and considered by the Lead Agency through Monday, May 6, 2013. 
This hearing is being held pursuant to the State Environmental Quality Review Act 
(SEQRA) and City Environmental Quality Review (CEQR), CEQR No. 12DPR005Q. 

Printed in the Queens Courier, 4/13/2013

BY GEOFFREY CROFT

In a recent op-ed (“A new alliance for Flushing Meadows-Corona Park,” March 10) Councilmember Julissa Ferreras argues for the need to create a new nonprofit alliance dedicated for Flushing Meadows-Corona Park (FMCP).

The alliance would collect money from the USTA and other businesses using the park and spend it exclusively on the park. Agreeing to a deal that puts money into a park fund in exchange for a yes vote, along with a few other “concessions”  is a misguided policy that would allow the USTA to expand and set the stage for more businesses to try and take more public parkland.

That is exactly what is not needed for the park.

It is the city’s legal responsibility to properly fund our public parks, not that of private businesses.

Make no mistake this is NOT like the Central Park Conservancy or the Prospect Park Alliance model as she has attempted to claim.  There is a huge difference between receiving philanthropic contributions from civic-minded people seeking nothing in return and establishing a fund explicitly created for extracting money from businesses exploiting the park.

She said she is doing this to ”to help protect this irreplaceable park.”  The park does not need this type of “protection.”

A detailed plan on how this alliance model could work has already been drawn up.  It was devised with the help of a Parks Department partner group New Yorkers for Parks, in concert with the councilmember, working behind closed doors.

Despite repeated requests Ferreras has refused to voluntarily provide a copy of this plan.  For the first time in 15 years I’ve had to resort to FOILing a councilmember. This is not a good sign.

These deals only weaken communities and make it easier for the next encroachment. They also allow the very people whose job it is to properly fund and protect our public spaces off the hook.

The councilmember was correct, though, when she said the park has not received the attention and resources it deserves.

Whose fault is that? Does anyone think our elected officials are doing their jobs when FMCP has only 14 employees for a 1,200-acre park?  That’s disgraceful.

Each year our elected officials allocate a fraction of the funds desperately needed to properly maintain, operate, secure, and program our 29,000 acres of public parks.

This year is no different.  Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s current $70.1 billion proposed budget allocates just $ 283.2 million or o.4 % in tax levy funds for parks.

Over the last 40 years no other city agency has lost a greater percentage of its workforce than the Parks Department.  This happens year after because the public does NOT demand accountability.

The city continues to try and abdicate its responsibilities by entering in these public/private agreements that officials are not only allowing but actively encouraging.  They are increasingly resorting to these pay-to-play funding schemes.  This welfare mentality has to stop.

These deals hand over enormous power and decision making authority to these groups with little transparency and accountability on what is supposed to be public land.

We need our elected officials instead to allocate proper resources for our parks; it’s what the public pays taxes for.

Until communities begin to stand together and demand accountability from officials and “so called” park advocacy groups, the public can expect more of the same – our parks being sold out.

Geoffrey Croft is the founder and president of NYC Park Advocates, a non-profit watchdog group dedicated to improving public parks. He is also a founding member of Save Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, a coalition of community-based civic and environmental groups opposed to the commercial encroachment of FMCP.   

There will be a Community Board 7 full board meeting on Monday night, which will offer an opportunity to address the board about Willets Point / Willets West mall, prior to committee meetings starting.  Please note that Willets Point is not on the agenda, but you may still speak about it during the public participation period.  (The project is expected to be on the agenda for the May 13th meeting, when you may also sign up to speak.)

What: Community Board 7 full board meeting
Date: Monday, April 8th
Meeting Time: 7:00pm
Public participation Time: 9:30pm (but may start earlier)
Place: Union Plaza Care Center, 33-23 Union Street, Flushing, NY 11354
Sign up to speak upon entering.

The first (and perhaps only) committee meeting on the matter will happen this Thursday.  There will be no public participation, but you may observe the discussion about the Willets Point project, which is on the agenda.

What: Community Board 7 buildings and zoning committee hearing
Date: Thursday, April 11th
Time: 7:30pm
Place: Union Plaza Care Center, 33-23 Union Street, Flushing, NY 11354
For observation only - no testimony accepted.

The application is being portrayed as a "minor amendment to the previously-approved project" -- but it obviously is not. The effect of the amendment is to nearly double the size of the project from 62 acres to 108.9 acres, and to prioritize the construction of a previously undisclosed 1.4 million square foot mall on public parkland that is presently a Citi Field parking lot. If you thought the original Willets Point development was a monstrosity, this is no comparison …

The Queens Borough President and Community Board were promised a hand in selecting the developer for the project, but they were not consulted before Sterling/Related was chosen by the Bloomberg administration.  If they had been involved, perhaps a proposal that did not take public parkland would have been selected.
 
It also is not likely that the City Council will call up the project, hear testimony and publicly debate it.  Again, the project is being framed as just a "minor amendment to the previously-approved project," but the previously approved plan did not involve a mall, the Mets parking lot, or mapped parkland.