More on our city's parks
Back in February 13th, I read a news article about the construction of athletic fields out in the parkland of Randal's Island, a place already under scrutiny for the Bloomberg administration's plans to privatize a huge portion of the area to build a water theme park (Thankfully, those plans fell through as the park operators who signed leases on the property failed to meet a key financial deadline). It seems that on February 1st "The State Supreme Court in Manhattan ruled against a deal struck between Mayor Bloomberg, the Department of Parks and Recreation and twenty private schools" for the reconstruction of various athletic fields, where money was to change hands from several private schools, thus granting them exclusive access to the areas during after school hours. People make fun of me when I say that our parks are under siege and that public parkland is for sale.

Of concern to the community board is the fact that despite the court ruling, less than two weeks later the sounds of chainsaws and bulldozers could be heard, in absolute defiance of the court ruling. Community board member Matthew Washington, a plaintiff in the lawsuit to stop all work currently in progress that has turned the entire island into a construction site, complains bitterly over many of the trees of the park that have been destroyed.

This is a deal that is essentially privatizing almost 160 acres of public parkland, which by any definition is a major project requiring approvals from the community board. Alas, we have seen just how much influence community boards have these days when we stroll by Washington Square Park, and view the construction work going on which was clearly, loudly and with great fervor opposed by the community board and the immediate community surrounding the park. I'm a reasonable man, the problem here is that those behind these projects are not. In many cases the motivation is clear, profit. In others, such as the money donated towards Washington Square Parks destruction on the grounds that the fountain be renamed "Tish Fountain", we have egos of such monumental proportions that I stand in awe that the planet we live on does not wobble in it's orbit from the sheer mass of such self importance.

But back to Randal's Island. The Randalls Island Sports Foundation, which is behind this project, and it's Chairman Richard Davis, maintained that the work could not be done without the financial support of the private schools. So how can it be when the contract with the schools is voided by a court ruling on February 1st, that there is still funding for the work to continue? Many have suspected from the beginning (the City Council staff has actually admitted this to be true) that the funds always where meant to come out of the city's capital budget. So then, why hand over the best access to 160 acres of parkland to 20 private schools?

It gets even more convoluted, it seems that city attorney Lawrence S. Kahn, in a masterpiece of verbal double speak that I must confess to admire and respect out of the sheer technique in which he manipulates the wording of the judge's ruling, claims that there is no contradiction the following:

Claiming that the court ruling addresses only "the use of the fields once they are built, not the construction of the fields themselves", Mr. Kahn may have just set the world record for fast thinking verbal gobbledygook, essentially filling the air with verbiage and saying nothing at all..
Gotta love lawyers.
But wait, it seems the city's mathematicians use fuzzy logic,…
In their July 28th, 2006 memorandum, Joshua Laird (Parks Department planner) claimed that 64 new athletic fields would be built to replace the 51 fields that exist in the park. The esteemed Mr. Kahn went on to explain how an environmental Impact statement wasn't necessary because "the construction of the fields constitutes 'in kind' replacement, rehabilitation or reconstruction of the ball fields on the same site."

Well, let's look at this, at a Feb. 13, 2007 hearing of the Franchise and Concession Review Committee, the Deputy Commissioner of the Parks Department Liam Kavanaugh put the figure for existing fields at 36. So that meant that the number of new fields to be constructed will be 28. The last time I checked, that comes out to double that of the 2006 claim.

Geoffrey Croft of the watchdog group NYC Park Advocates said that didn't believe there were even 36 permanent fields on Randall's Island. Croft showed before and after photos at a community meeting in East Harlem illustrating clearly the full impact on the island of the construction project- "They've wiped out most of the vegetation on the island".

On February 24th Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito, East Harlem Preservation, Class Size Matters, the NYC Park Advocates, the New York Environmental Law & Justice Project, Friends of Brook Park, East Harlem Little League, Harlem R.B.I., and the Community Association of East Harlem Triangle Inc. organized what they called 'A WALK IN THE PARK COMMUNITY MARCH and RALLY TO & AT RANDALL'S ISLAND'. The purpose was to give voice to the following community concerns-

I wish them luck in all their endeavors, but I must be realistic in light of the outcome of the devastation at Washington Square Park, things look pretty bleak.



Sources:

  1. New York Metro, February 13th edition, p2
  2. New York Metro, Online edition,
    URL: http://ny.metro.us/metro/sports/article/City_has_fuzzy_math_on_Randalls_Island_redo/11793.html
  3. Plan NYC, (Plannyc.org)
    URL: http://www.plannyc.org/project-51-Water-Park-at-Randalls-Island
  4. Gotham Gazette
    URL: http://www.gothamgazette.com/blogs/wonkster/2008/02/13/runaround-on-randalls/