Keep It Green
To The Editor:
Since the administration of the late former Queens Boro President Donald Manes through and up to our current Bloomberg administration, FMCP has been up for grabs by all sorts of fat cat real estate and special interests aided and complicit with so called politicians who have not the vaguest understanding of what urban parks are all about and that once parkland a non renewable resource is given away, it is lost forever.
Residents of Queens and indeed of this city have every right to be concerned and to protest the malfeasance being inflicted on FMCP. (Residents Protest Park Plans- Queens Tribune-Sept. 20-26). It will be recalled Manes, who disgraced the office of Boro President facing criminal charges, wanted to cut down over one hundred trees and build a Grand Prix race track around Meadow Lake, endorsed at the time by our current Queens Boro President Helen Marshall, then a public official, as well as others and wanted to turn the park into a Meadowlands sportsplex to be named after himself. Since then the USTA was given a significant piece of the park upon its promise not to seek more parkland. That promise was as worthless as a dead tennis ball, it sought and was given more land and currently seeks more as well as the right to increase the size of its stadiums, an environmental blight. Bloomberg’s ill advised Willets Point plan will take some parkland and cause an egregious impact on the park. On the horizon is the prospect of a private for profit soccer stadium without hearing any expressions of opposition from any public official. It should also be noted the Mets stadium when initially constructed, was on parkland. The billboards on its current stadium for which it derives substantial income, is an environmental horror.
Donald Manes’ dream of a sportsplex in lieu of a park may well come to pass, in which case it should be named after him since the demise of the park would be criminal and compliment his abysmal term in office. While the die has been cast, but since not yet solidified, can anything be done to prevent this from happening? The answer is “Yes.” The people of this city and in particular of Queens, must take Frederick Law Olmstead’s admonition seriously. Flushing Meadows Corona Park must be removed from the city’s jurisdiction and turned over to a professionally trained park administrator supported with tax dollars and with the specific obligation to exclude all politicians, real estate and special interests from any say in management of the park.
Residents of Queens wake up if you want to save Flushing Meadows Corona Park for yourself and generations to come, and insist any person seeking public office must support the above or not receive your vote.
Read More:
Queens Tribune - October 4, 2012 - By Benjamin M. Haber
A Walk In The Park - October 5, 2012
A Walk In The Park - October 4, 2012
A Walk In The Park - October 2, 2012
A Walk In The Park - September 20, 2012
A Walk In The Park - September 15, 2012 - By Geoffrey Croft
A Walk In The Park - July 31, 2012
A Walk In The Park - June 23, 2012
Benjamen got it right. Only the citizens of Queens can stop these encroachments into Flushing Meadow Park. Stand up Queens shout out to your local officials. We want to keep our park the way it is. Flushing Meadow Park is Queens most important cultural and neighborhood Park and we want to keep it that way. David
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