Flushing Meadows-Corona Park Is Under Siege.
The proposed projects would have enormous impacts not only on the park but on surrounding communities. The projects would destroy thriving local businesses, many of them family-run, and drastically increase traffic, bringing in millions of additional cars annually.
The City's Economic Development Corp. is irresponsibly attempting to push these projects through without conducting a full environmental review encompassing all three projects, which is needed to assess the cumulative impact.
The three projects include:
1) Bloomberg-preferred developer, the Related Companies, in partnership with Sterling Equities, the real estate firm controlled by the owner of the Mets, have plans to build a 1.4M square-foot mall and parking garage. The majority of the land for the first phase of the $4B Willets Point project would be taken from parkland adjacent to Citi Field currently used for parking. The administration is attempting to sidestep state law regarding alienation of parkland for non-park purposes.
The city is desperately trying to rely on a 1961 bill that never replaced parkland used for Shea Stadium.
If the 40-plus acres being proposed for mall use on the CitiField parking lot are no longer needed for parking, then they should revert back to their original recreational use. Our elected officials should be pushing for that instead of giving away our public spaces to the highest bidder.
2) Major League Soccer is pushing to build a 35,000-seat professional soccer stadium and concert venue on up to 13 acres. The $300 million plan calls for filling in the former Pool of Industry from the 1964 World’s Fair – which the City has allowed to deteriorate, like many other World’s Fair relics in the park.
Some elected officials and Major League Soccer representatives have sought to characterize the proposed Stadium site as decrepit and “under-utilized.” One of the more absurd MLS claims and justifications is that it’s a water body and that only 1 acre of grass would be used. According to that philosophy, our water features, which make up fully one-third of all city parkland, are okay to develop. Besides providing pleasant views, the fountain area is used for jogging, as well as for wildlife. And who builds a stadium in the middle of a river?
Instead of maintaining the park, their absurd solution is to develop it into a private business.
Unlike the Willets Point deal, the City is requiring MLS to replace parkland. The MLS soccer PR blitz has attempted to try and equate the seizing and destruction of public parkland and its associated impacts with simply replacing the land elsewhere. But these replacement park facilities would not provide the same usefulness, location or value.
3) As part of a $500M expansion, the U.S. Tennis Association plans to build a 15,000-seat stadium and an 8,000-seat stadium, as well as two parking garages with a capacity of 692 spaces. The proposed project would also remove more than 400 trees.
The United States Tennis Association (USTA) currently occupies 42 acres in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park - public land that is leased from the Parks Department.
The proposed expansion project would add 0.94 acres of public parkland to the National Tennis Center (NTC) site under a long-term lease, including the 0.68-acre Project Area that would be leased pursuant to the application, plus 0.26-acres of park land that was authorized for disposition to the USTA on August 2, 1993.
The project would remove 422 trees, build two garages totaling 692 parking spaces to accommodate an estimated 10,000 additional people projected to attend the annual two-week US Open event.
Adding insult to injury unlike the proposed parkland seizure being proposed by MLS the Bloomberg administration is NOT requiring the USTA to replace the nearly one acre they are being allowed to take.
The USTA and the Bloomberg administration have come with a peculiar definition of "public space." They are claiming that the National Tennis Center is "a public space," and therefore, the USTA does not need replace the parkland that will be alienated for its NTC expansion.
Instead the USTA will do park rehabilitation projects.
In numerous documents the City claims USTA makes "its facilities available to the public 11 months of the year."
However the majority of the 42 acres the USTA currently occupies are closed to the public for these months. With the exception of the 12 pay-to-pay indoor courts the majority of which cost between $ 40 & $ 66 per hour, and the 18 outdoor courts where the public is required to spend $ 22 & $ 32 per hour - the remaining facility is an abandoned tennis village where not a single building is open.
The park land grab expansion is part of the National Tennis Center "Strategic Vision."
The USTA has been allowed to double its park land holdings since 1993 when they were permitted to expand from 21 acres to 42.
The USTA moved to its current site in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in 1978, In 1993, the NTC site expanded from 21.6 acres to approximately 42.2 acres to allow for the construction of a new 23,500-seat stadium (Arthur Ashe Stadium), completed in 1997. The 1993 expansion required alienation and disposition of park land in the form of a lease following review by the City through its Uniform Land Use Review Procedure. The tennis center was renamed the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in 2006.
The long-term lease would require a home rule request from the City Council to the State Legislature and New York State legislation to authorize the alienation of that site, "even though the land would still remain mapped parkland," according to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS).
(Former Queens New York State Republican Senator Frank Padavan sponsored the Home Rule message for the Bloomberg administration to allow the New York Yankees to seize 25.3 acres of historic Bronx public parkland to built the team's $ 1 billion new stadium.)
If our officials were truly interested in creating jobs, they would start by taking care of the park. For decades, people have fought for the City to care for this vital resource.
Elected officials should be supporting the hiring of desperately needed permanent workers to maintain, program and secure the largest park in Queens. They have continuously allocated a fraction of the park funds needed and instead have been making deals that commercially exploit them.
There is plenty of land available for purchase by private developers but these 3 "opportunities" are presenting themselves because the City REFUSES to protect its parkland. We now live in an era where public parkland is readily available for commercial development because the current administration actively encourages this practice.
JUST SAY NO TO PARKLAND GIVEAWAYS!
The City's Economic Development Corp. is irresponsibly attempting to push these projects through without conducting a full environmental review encompassing all three projects, which is needed to assess the cumulative impact.
The three projects include:
1) Bloomberg-preferred developer, the Related Companies, in partnership with Sterling Equities, the real estate firm controlled by the owner of the Mets, have plans to build a 1.4M square-foot mall and parking garage. The majority of the land for the first phase of the $4B Willets Point project would be taken from parkland adjacent to Citi Field currently used for parking. The administration is attempting to sidestep state law regarding alienation of parkland for non-park purposes.
The city is desperately trying to rely on a 1961 bill that never replaced parkland used for Shea Stadium.
If the 40-plus acres being proposed for mall use on the CitiField parking lot are no longer needed for parking, then they should revert back to their original recreational use. Our elected officials should be pushing for that instead of giving away our public spaces to the highest bidder.
2) Major League Soccer is pushing to build a 35,000-seat professional soccer stadium and concert venue on up to 13 acres. The $300 million plan calls for filling in the former Pool of Industry from the 1964 World’s Fair – which the City has allowed to deteriorate, like many other World’s Fair relics in the park.
Some elected officials and Major League Soccer representatives have sought to characterize the proposed Stadium site as decrepit and “under-utilized.” One of the more absurd MLS claims and justifications is that it’s a water body and that only 1 acre of grass would be used. According to that philosophy, our water features, which make up fully one-third of all city parkland, are okay to develop. Besides providing pleasant views, the fountain area is used for jogging, as well as for wildlife. And who builds a stadium in the middle of a river?
Instead of maintaining the park, their absurd solution is to develop it into a private business.
Unlike the Willets Point deal, the City is requiring MLS to replace parkland. The MLS soccer PR blitz has attempted to try and equate the seizing and destruction of public parkland and its associated impacts with simply replacing the land elsewhere. But these replacement park facilities would not provide the same usefulness, location or value.
3) As part of a $500M expansion, the U.S. Tennis Association plans to build a 15,000-seat stadium and an 8,000-seat stadium, as well as two parking garages with a capacity of 692 spaces. The proposed project would also remove more than 400 trees.
The United States Tennis Association (USTA) currently occupies 42 acres in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park - public land that is leased from the Parks Department.
The proposed expansion project would add 0.94 acres of public parkland to the National Tennis Center (NTC) site under a long-term lease, including the 0.68-acre Project Area that would be leased pursuant to the application, plus 0.26-acres of park land that was authorized for disposition to the USTA on August 2, 1993.
The project would remove 422 trees, build two garages totaling 692 parking spaces to accommodate an estimated 10,000 additional people projected to attend the annual two-week US Open event.
Adding insult to injury unlike the proposed parkland seizure being proposed by MLS the Bloomberg administration is NOT requiring the USTA to replace the nearly one acre they are being allowed to take.
The USTA and the Bloomberg administration have come with a peculiar definition of "public space." They are claiming that the National Tennis Center is "a public space," and therefore, the USTA does not need replace the parkland that will be alienated for its NTC expansion.
Instead the USTA will do park rehabilitation projects.
In numerous documents the City claims USTA makes "its facilities available to the public 11 months of the year."
However the majority of the 42 acres the USTA currently occupies are closed to the public for these months. With the exception of the 12 pay-to-pay indoor courts the majority of which cost between $ 40 & $ 66 per hour, and the 18 outdoor courts where the public is required to spend $ 22 & $ 32 per hour - the remaining facility is an abandoned tennis village where not a single building is open.
The park land grab expansion is part of the National Tennis Center "Strategic Vision."
The USTA has been allowed to double its park land holdings since 1993 when they were permitted to expand from 21 acres to 42.
The USTA moved to its current site in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in 1978, In 1993, the NTC site expanded from 21.6 acres to approximately 42.2 acres to allow for the construction of a new 23,500-seat stadium (Arthur Ashe Stadium), completed in 1997. The 1993 expansion required alienation and disposition of park land in the form of a lease following review by the City through its Uniform Land Use Review Procedure. The tennis center was renamed the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in 2006.
The long-term lease would require a home rule request from the City Council to the State Legislature and New York State legislation to authorize the alienation of that site, "even though the land would still remain mapped parkland," according to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS).
(Former Queens New York State Republican Senator Frank Padavan sponsored the Home Rule message for the Bloomberg administration to allow the New York Yankees to seize 25.3 acres of historic Bronx public parkland to built the team's $ 1 billion new stadium.)
If our officials were truly interested in creating jobs, they would start by taking care of the park. For decades, people have fought for the City to care for this vital resource.
Elected officials should be supporting the hiring of desperately needed permanent workers to maintain, program and secure the largest park in Queens. They have continuously allocated a fraction of the park funds needed and instead have been making deals that commercially exploit them.
There is plenty of land available for purchase by private developers but these 3 "opportunities" are presenting themselves because the City REFUSES to protect its parkland. We now live in an era where public parkland is readily available for commercial development because the current administration actively encourages this practice.
JUST SAY NO TO PARKLAND GIVEAWAYS!