Fallen Central Park Tree Branch Hurts Three

Three women suffered injuries from a fallen branch and were taken to New York Presbyterian Hospital, the Parks Department said. PHOTO: DNAinfo/Gabriela Resto-Montero

Manhattan

Three women were hit by a falling tree branch in Central Park near the Boathouse Monday, according to DNAinfo.

The women all suffered injuries from the fallen branch and were taken to New York Presbyterian Hospital, the Parks Deparment said.

A 53-year-old woman was treated for head and nose injuries, a 28-year-old woman suffered a hip injury and a 38-year-old woman had minor injuries, a spokesperson for the Department said

The victims appeared to be part of a family that was having a picnic on the lawn, said Mark Leckner, a passerby at the scene near the northeast part of the lake.

Park goers enjoying the warm weather on the lawn by the boat house heard a spltting noise and rushed to the site at around 12:30 p.m., Leckner said.

The woman was conscious but bleeding from the mouth, he said.

Read More: 

Tree Branch Falls on Three People in Central Park

DNAinfo -May 31, 2010 - By Gabriela Resto-Montero 

Ten Hurt In "Horrific Scene" At Clove Lake Park Helicopter Accident

An injured bystander is taken away from the scene of an Osprey helicopter landing that injured ten Monday morning in Staten Island's Clove Lake Park. The intense wind generated by the helicopter's twin rotors destroyed tree limbs, dirt from a nearby baseball field and other debris into a whirlwind that sent spectators scattering and seven people to the hospital. Who approved the use of this machine in a city park? (Photo: Fevelo for The Daily News)

STATEN ISLAND

A Marine Corps helicopter touching down for a Memorial Day demonstration on Staten Island sent tree branches flying into the stunned crowd, injuring at least 10 people, according to The New York Daily News. 

As the Osprey dipped toward the ground at Cloves Lakes Park Preserve, wind whipped up by the helicopter's rotor broke up two mid-sized trees and sent some 30 branches flying, Deputy Fire Chief Roger Sakowich said.

Yolanda Maiurrno, 80, of Staten Island, was thwacked in the ankle by a piece of wood.

"It was a really scary and horrific scene. I'm all shook up right now and I can't stop shaking," she said, gripping an ice pack given to her by medics.

"I came here to have a lovely day," she said of the annual event. "It was between this and the beach, and now I wish I chose the beach."

The MV-22 Bravo Osprey was attempting to land about 9:10 a.m. in the middle of the park's ballfields for an event celebrating 2010 Fleet Week and Memorial Day.

"We came in over the trees. You can't see what's going on underneath them," said Marine Capt. Michael Henson, whose regiment is based in North Carolina. "The next thing we see is a blanket coming up in the air. That means one thing, someone is sitting down below us. The only thing to do was to just keep going."

Helicopters, especially the heavy Osprey helicopter-airplane hybrid used by the Marines, create a lot of wind when landing.

"Anything that's loose is going to get blown around," Henson said.

U.S. Marine Corps officials say an MV-22 Osprey aircraft was landing in Clove Lakes Park around 8 a.m. this morning when its powerful twin engines began kicking up dirt and debris. (Photo: NY1)

Read More & Watch Video

Marine Corps Osprey helicopter landing injures ten in Staten Island park during Memorial Day event

New York Daily News - May 31st 2010  -  By  Henrick  Karoliszyn, Oren Yaniv, Rocco Parascandola and Katie Nelson

Military Fly-Over Injures 10 On Staten Island

NY1 News  - May 31, 2010

Marine aircraft mishap injures 10 at NYC park

Associated Press - May 31, 2010 By JENNIFER PELTZ

Turtle Poaching In Prospect Park

Turtles better hide in their shells — it appears someone is poaching the precious creatures from the lake in Prospect Park!

Two regular parkgoers, Anne-Katrin Titze and Ed Bahlman, discovered the shocking trap in the water last Tuesday while cleaning the area around the nest of one of their beloved swans, according to Courier-Life.

The trap, which is slightly bigger than a shoebox, had a long line tethered to it, which was secured under a fallen tree. Titze snared the line with a stick after noticing that Sedna, a mother swan, was nibbling at some odd debris — turned out to be a shirt — near the bank of the lake.

“It was like she wanted us to clean up,” said Bahlman, explaining how they stumbled upon the shocking find.

Bahlman and Titze even said they found another trap the day before.

But park officials were hesitant to declare the traps a clear sign of poaching.

“I can’t say [if that is] a turtle trap or what kind of trap it is or what animals someone was trying to trap with it,” said Eugene Patron, a spokesman for the Prospect Park Alliance, who was shown a photograph of the apparent trap. But regardless, he added, “Trapping or capturing of wildlife is absolutely prohibited.”

It is hard to imagine what other purpose the trap could have served. The basket is not meant to capture fish, and the area where it was found is preferred among turtles, which bask on the many fallen trees on the edge of the lake.

“It’s clearly not a fish trap, because no fish could get caught in it,” said Max Gaspeny, a lifelong fisherman familiar with Prospect Park. “A turtle was not blessed with the grace of a fish, so it wouldn’t be able to get out of there quickly — it’s a crude trap, but I can’t imagine what else [someone] would be going after with that thing.”

Gaspeny added that it’s not uncommon for people to eat the meat of turtles and or use the shells as decorations.

Read More:

Animal attraction! Now someone is trying to poach turtles in Prospect Park

Now someone is trying to poach turtles in Prospect Park!

Courier-Life - May 28, 2010 - By Stephen Brown

Union Square Park Lawn Access Denial Revealed

Access Denied. The public has been wondering recently why they were being prevented from accessing Union Square Park's largest open space, its center lawn, a legitimate concern, considering the area suffers from having one of the least amount of parks and open space in the entire city. It turns out The Union Square Partnership and the Parks Department closed the heavily used and already crowded lawn to allow the installation of a series of artworks referred to as  "eleven professional props" for posing.

According to the artist statement,  the interactive sculptures "invite viewers to mount inscribed pedestals, stand under elaborate headdresses and insert their limbs into holes. A work that begins as a sculpture metamorphoses into countless performances, only complete when viewers photograph their interactions and share them in blogs and emails. At this point, the audience changes and the participants become the subject of the work."

It appears the Partnership is attempting to borrow a playbook from its northerly neighbors – The Madison Square Park Conservancy – by getting into the public art business.  Madison Square Park has a much larger and open lawn, and is dramatically less crowded than Union Square Park. Art in parks is a very worthwhile endeavor as long as it does not impinge on the open space and the passive and recreational needs of a community, and is not an advertisement for a commercial entity. 

The project is being presented by The Union Square Partnership, a business improvement district/local development corporation and DEITCH PROJECTS LLC, a commercial gallery.

From ANPQuarterly.  Planning on posing this summer? A little recreational posing? Why not do it with the support of props designed just for this purpose. It might be a relief to have a some help in this department, after years of free-form (and let’s face it, often inaccurate) posing. For your convenience, eleven professional props will be installed in Union Square Park in New York, all summer. If you fill a little posing coming on, hurry over.

Eleven Heavy Things
Miranda July
May 29 – October 3, 2010
Center Lawn, Union Square Park

PRESENTED BY DEITCH PROJECTS AS ITS FINAL PUBLIC PROJECT. THE WORK IS EXHIBITED IN COOPERATION WITH THE UNION SQUARE PARTNERSHIP AND NYC PARKS & RECREATION.

State Park Facilities Ordered Opened Immediately/Programs To Be Restored

May 28, 2010

Eileen Larrabee
Dan Keefe
518-486-1868

State Parks Welcome Visitors for Memorial Day Weekend

Commissioner directs staff to open the gates to all facilities immediately

Urges New Yorkers to take full advantage of wonderful system of parks and historic sites

State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Commissioner Carol Ash today directed agency staff to open the gates at all state parks for the Memorial Day weekend and expeditiously get campgrounds, golf courses and historic sites into full operating status.

"The agency staff is thrilled to get back to doing what they do best – which is running the finest state park system in the nation. I know that New Yorkers across the state worked very hard to support their public parks over the last few months. Now I hope they will get out and enjoy these beautiful places this Memorial Day weekend and throughout the upcoming season," Ash said. "I am grateful to Governor Paterson and the Legislature for finding a way to fully open our great park system this summer, which was an extremely difficult challenge in this struggling economy."

Ash said staff will immediately reopen gates to parking lots and unlock the facilities to make them available for normal day-use activities, including picnicking, hiking, cycling and fishing. Other amenities will become available over the next few days as workers who have been reassigned return to their regular work sites and normal levels of seasonal park workers and lifeguards are hired.

To coincide with the full opening of the state park system, the holiday weekend also marks the beginning of a new summer campaign to encourage New Yorkers to visit their state parks and historic sites and take full advantage of the more than 213 properties across the state. The initiative will utilize the agency website, www.nysparks.com, as well as Facebook and Twitter.

Beaches and pools: Park beaches and pools are expected to open on-schedule. Beaches and pools open between Memorial Day weekend and late June. Efforts are being made to open all facilities on schedule.

Campgrounds: Fifty-five campgrounds encompassing 9,400 campsites, cabins and cottages are open for the season. Ash noted that those campgrounds are 85 percent booked for the Memorial Day weekend. At 11 other campgrounds, with about 285 sites, park managers will take immediate steps to comply with health and safety regulations to allow the campgrounds to open for visitors. Reservations at Canoe Point, Cedar Island, Eel Weir, Hunt's Pond, Keewaydin, Macomb Reservation, Mary Island, Max V. Shaul, Newtown Battlefield, Oquaga Creek and Rudd Pond will be accepted beginning Friday, May 28. Check the agency website for campground availability. Reservations are accepted for campsites and cabins from one day to nine months in advance of the planned arrival date by calling toll free 1-800-456-CAMP or online, www.nysparks.com.

Ash noted that there are over 74,000 campsites, cabins and cottages reserved for nearly 313,000 nights so far for the 2010 season, a level that is slightly ahead of last year's record pace. Advance reservations at state parks campgrounds have been steadily increasing in recent years.

Historic sites: Tours at historic sites shut by the fiscal crisis will resume the week of June 6, but the grounds will be open for Memorial Day weekend.

Golf: Bonavista and Springbrook Greens golf courses will open on or about June 7.

Riverbank State Park: The park will return to normal operating hours of 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. beginning this weekend. The outdoor pool will open on schedule on June 28. Senior classes will resume at a date to be determined.

Park visitors are advised to call the parks directly for information on the availability of specific services. Information on each of the 178 state parks and 35 historic sites operated by New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation is available at www.nysparks.com.

http://nysparks.state.ny.us/newsroom/press-releases/release.aspx?r=791

Union Square Metal Dome: Fun to Climb, Until the Temperature Does, Too

Photographs by Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park AdvocatesThe Mountain at Union Square Park is off limits for now because it gets too hot to touch.

A parks department sign explains why the dome is closed for play.

A bill to make playgrounds safer for children is garnering more attention as parents across New York complain about playground equipment that heats up in the summer sun and scorches their children’s hands and feet.

Assemblyman Micah Kellner introduced the bill earlier this year: It would require all playground equipment to be temperature tested. The Legislature may vote on the measure within two weeks, according to the New York Times.

“While kids are always going to get hurt playing, there are certain things we can do to mitigate the risk,” Mr. Kellner said.

Most recently, a shiny six-foot-high stainless steel dome called the Mountain was made off limits to children clamoring to jump, climb and slide on it in the new $2.4 million Union Square Park playground in Manhattan. Some parents and park advocates said the shimmering orb was more like a fireball than a suitable piece of playground equipment. On hot days, parents said, their children touched the dome and pulled back as if it were a hot pan.

Last week the Department of Parks and Recreation cordoned off the Mountain. The parks department plans to erect a shade structure made of green cloth that stands nearly eight feet above the dome to keep it cooler. The park designers planted dawn redwoods around the playground, but those trees are not mature enough yet to shade the 15,000-square-foot area.

Read More: 

Fun to Climb, Until the Temperature Does, Too

New York Times City Room -  May 28, 2010  - By BAO ONG

Turtle Poaching In Prospect Park

Turtles better hide in their shells — it appears someone is poaching the precious creatures from the lake in Prospect Park!

Two regular parkgoers, Anne-Katrin Titze and Ed Bahlman, discovered the shocking trap in the water last Tuesday while cleaning the area around the nest of one of their beloved swans, according to Courier-Life.

The trap, which is slightly bigger than a shoebox, had a long line tethered to it, which was secured under a fallen tree. Titze snared the line with a stick after noticing that Sedna, a mother swan, was nibbling at some odd debris — turned out to be a shirt — near the bank of the lake.

“It was like she wanted us to clean up,” said Bahlman, explaining how they stumbled upon the shocking find.

Bahlman and Titze even said they found another trap the day before.

But park officials were hesitant to declare the traps a clear sign of poaching.

“I can’t say [if that is] a turtle trap or what kind of trap it is or what animals someone was trying to trap with it,” said Eugene Patron, a spokesman for the Prospect Park Alliance, who was shown a photograph of the apparent trap. But regardless, he added, “Trapping or capturing of wildlife is absolutely prohibited.”

It is hard to imagine what other purpose the trap could have served. The basket is not meant to capture fish, and the area where it was found is preferred among turtles, which bask on the many fallen trees on the edge of the lake.

“It’s clearly not a fish trap, because no fish could get caught in it,” said Max Gaspeny, a lifelong fisherman familiar with Prospect Park. “A turtle was not blessed with the grace of a fish, so it wouldn’t be able to get out of there quickly — it’s a crude trap, but I can’t imagine what else [someone] would be going after with that thing.”

Gaspeny added that it’s not uncommon for people to eat the meat of turtles and or use the shells as decorations.

Read More:

Animal attraction! Now someone is trying to poach turtles in Prospect Park

Now someone is trying to poach turtles in Prospect Park!

Courier-Life - May 28, 2010 - By Stephen Brown

State Assembly Passes Park Legislation To Reopen Parks

Dozens of shuttered state parks should reopen, just in time for the Memorial Day weekend.

Early this morning, the State Assembly passed a bill that would provide $11 million dollars for park operations this year, according to NY1.

The Senate is expected to vote on it later today.

The agreement reached with Governor David Paterson yesterday takes the money from the state's Environmental Protection Fund. In fact, a total of $74 million would be cut from the fund.

The Paterson administration had closed 41 parks and 14 historic sites, including Bayswater Point Park in Queens to try to save money. Others, including Riverbank State Park in Manhattan, had services and hours cut.

Opponents say cutting the environment fund will lead to drastic cuts for other institutions like the Bronx Zoo and the Botanical Garden.

State Senate To Vote On Parks Legislation

NY 1 - May 28, 2010

Brooklyn College Blocked From Paving Community Garden

Before the reprieve: gardeners at last week’s farewell party to a community garden on the campus of Brooklyn College. (Photo: Julia Gillard for The New York Times)

BROOKLN

Updated, 4:46 p.m. | Paradise is safe from paving, for now.

A judge has temporarily blocked Brooklyn College from paving over a more-than-6,000-square-foot community garden on its campus to make way for the expansion of an athletic field. A hearing on the issue is slated for June 25, according to the New York Times.

Campus Road Community Garden, near an entrance to the college, was founded in 1997. The college drew criticism when it said that as part of its expansion of a decrepit athletic field, it would destroy the existing garden, in part to make way for parking spaces.

Though college administrators promised to build a new garden in its place, that did not mollify the gardeners, who complained about the new design, and the fact that it was less than half the size of the old garden.

Last week, the gardeners began uprooting their plants and staged amelancholy farewell gathering as campus security guards watched.

But at the last minute, Andy Snyder, a social studies teacher who also uses the garden, cobbled together a nine-page petition with the help of two students and advice from a lawyer.

The gardeners argued that the state Dormitory Authority, which had found that the project would have no adverse environmental impact, needed to file an Environmental Impact Statement that would “accurately address the true environmental impact of this planned and imminent destruction of a precious community resource.”

Read More:

Brooklyn College Blocked From Paving Garden

City Room New York Times - May 26, 2010  - By Kareem Fahim And Bao Ong

Hostage No Longer, Deal Reached to Reopen Closed State Parks

Chester Higgins Jr./The New York TimesFire it up: Picnickers in Riverbank State Park in Harlem in 2007. A last-minute agreement in Albany will undo program cuts at Riverbank and reopen dozens of closed parks around the state. The deal cuts $ 77 million from the Environmental Protection Fund, including $ 59 million for much needed land  acquisition.

"The fund’s budget for land acquisition, for example, which was $59 million last year, is zero under the agreement, an official in the governor’s office said."

ALBANY

Just in time for the ritual lighting of the grills this weekend, the governor and the Legislature reached an agreement to reopen the 58 state parks and historic sites that closed last week, casualties of the state’s budget crisis, according to the New York Times.

Gov. David A. Paterson told a WOR-AM radio host, John Gambling, Thursday morning that the staff members “worked until about 4 o’clock in the morning” and appear to have resolved the issues about the state parks.”

The Legislature still needs to approve the measure, but Austin Shafran, a spokesman for the State Senate Democratic leader, John L. Sampson, said at 4 p.m. that the Senate had received the draft of the legislation and was reviewing it.

“We have the framework of the agreement in place to reopen the parks this weekend and for the remainder of the year,” Mr. Shafran said. “Our conference is reviewing the specific details and are hopeful to pass the legislation shortly” – possibly as soon as Thursday evening.

A spokeswoman for the Assembly leadership said that legislation was “close.”

Read More:

Deal Reached to Reopen Closed State Parks

New York Times City Room - May 27, 2010-  By Andy NEWMAN

Cromwell Recreation Center Collapses; No one hurt

The Parks Department's Cromwell Recreation Center in Tompkinsville is partially collapsed. The facility had been closed to begin a renovation and no one was inside. (Photos: Staten Island Advance)

STATEN ISLAND

Cromwell Center, the aging Tompkinsville recreation facility about to undergo a multimillion-dollar renovation, partially collapsed into the harbor yesterday when the right side of the pier it sits atop crumbled, according to a report by The Staten Island Advance.

The recreation center has been closed to the public awaiting the start of construction, and no one was in the building at the time. No one was hurt. 

Michael Bonanno was working out in the weight room at Lyons Pool across the street when he heard a low rumble, "like a truck going over a speed bump," he said. Then Cromwell’s alarm bell went off, and fire trucks arrived.

A second collapse occurred while firefighters were about to inspect the damage. "I heard them banging, and all of a sudden, ‘Get out!’ and that’s when they ran like hell," said John Mullarkey who lives in Bay Street Landing across the street.

The early consensus was that the structure could not be saved, and some bystanders thought they could see the building listing further as they stood watching.

"They want a Cromwell Center, but they’re going to have to build it on land somewhere," said Borough President James Molinaro.

READ ABOUT CROMWELL CENTER'S LONG HISTORY 

But Parks Department Commissioner Adrian Benepe said engineers believe the rear of the 1938 structure is still solid and might be salvageable.

The front-right corner of the building, though, "is in imminent state of collapse," FDNY Incident Commander Chief James Leonard said, and it already had shifted five and a half inches in the first two hours following the arrival of emergency responders.

Firefighters perched in a bucket atop a ladder truck kept an eye on the structure to detect any signs of movement.

Closed to the public in April, the center was days away from undergoing the beginning of a $4.4 million construction project which would have included a roof replacement, bulkhead stabilization, installation of three support piles and corrosion prevention, Benepe said. The contractor, RB Conway and Sons, had not yet started work.

Read More including Video:

Sea claims part of Staten Island recreation center as Cromwell collapses; no one hurt

Staten Island Advance - May 27, 2010 By -  Maura Yates

State Parks Deal Nearer - $77 Mil. Environmental Protection Fund Cut

ALBANY

Gov. Paterson this morning said he’s reached a deal with lawmakers to re-open state parks in time for the Memorial Day weekend - so long as both houses of the Legislature adopt it later today, according to the New York Daily News. 

“We worked until about four o’clock in the morning and the staffs of the Senate and Assembly and the governor’s office appear to have resolved the issues about the state parks,” Paterson said on WOR’s "The John Gambling Show."

Paterson said legislative leaders have come up with the necessary spending cuts to re-open the 41 state parks and 14 historic sites that have not opened this season because of the budget crunch.

“The legislature has made the tough choices to may satisfaction that will enable us to open the parks,” Pateron said. “That’s the good news. Now the bad news is that it has taken about four days to find 11 million to keep the parks open.”

Paterson’s initial proposal to re-open the parks, which the Legislature rejected on Monday, took the money from the Environmental Protection Fund. But to approve the deal, lawmakers had to go along with Paterson’s proposal to shave $77 million from the fund’s total budget, which the governor said is necessary to help close the state’s $9.2 billion budget deficit.

Read More:

Finally a parks deal?

New York Daily News - The Daily Politics - May 27, 2010 -  By Glenn Blain 

Central Park Vs. Ridgewood Reservoir Fence Discrepancy

The fence installed around Central Park's reservoir in 2002 cost $ 2 million dollars and matches one of the fence designs found in Ridgewood Reservoir in Queens. The Parks Department has told that "outer borough" community however that using the same design would not meet code.  

Reservoir Fencing

In a January 6th Daily News article, Kevin Quinn, director of Queens capital projects for the Parks Department, was quoted as saying that the historic fences at the reservoir needed to be removed because, the "spacing of the pickets no longer meets code as a guardrail." As far as I've been able to determine, the city's code requires that the spacing on railings be not more than 6".

There are two style of fences at the Ridgewood Reservoir. The first is a circa 1850s Hecla Ironworks fence that surrounds the central basin. In 2003, the department of parks had a replica of that fence created for the Central Park reservoir. The cost for the reproduction was $2 million. Here is a parks department 2003 press release about that installation. Welding Works, the company that built the fence received an industry award for the project.

The parks department was more than happy to spend $2 million to create a copy of the Ridgewood Reservoir fencing for Central Park. The same agency now wants to tear down the original, historic ones in Ridgewood for something that doesn't even try to look like a period piece. Why do you suppose they would do that?

Below is a series of photos which compare the replica fence around the Central Park Reservoir with the existing historic fence at the Ridgewood Reservoir.

Read More: 

Save Ridgewood Reservoir - May 25, 2010

Fence ok for Central Park is"too dangerous" for Ridgewood Reservoir

Queens Crap - May 27, 2010