Monday, August 17, 2009

Ferry Point Park "Boondoggle"

A great expose by the NY Post on the costs of the Ferry Point Park Golf Course - a course that no one in the Bronx asked for, and has taken years and millions of dollars to build:

A problem-plagued $22.4 million scheme to transform a 222-acre former Bronx landfill into a spectacular PGA-regulation golf course has not only missed its deadline by eight years, it will now cost an additional $100 million, The Post has learned.

And it'll be on the taxpayers' dime.

In 1998, when then-Mayor Giuliani unveiled plans to build the Jack Nicklaus-designed Ferry Point golf course near the Whitestone Bridge in Throgs Neck, the tab was supposed to be picked up by a private developer he chose, and golfers were supposed to tee off by 2001.

But eight years later, little work has been done besides mob-connected truckers dumping mounds of dirt over the old landfill.

Records show the city has already spent $43 million on Ferry Point and is budgeted to borrow at least another $80 million at a time when many other park projects are being gutted citywide because of the fiscal crisis.

"This is a boondoggle," said Geoffrey Croft of the watchdog group New York City Park Advocates. "Instead of building a park the community can use, the city is flushing money down the toilet."

Read More:

New York Post - August 18, 2009 - By Rich Calder

Bronx Golf Course Idea Now A Nightmare For NYC
CBS - August 17, 2009 - By Marcia Kramer

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