EDC College Point road Repair Holding Up Park Improvements

The delayed construction of a portion of Linden Place is also holding up work on the nearby Parks Department College Point Fields, according to a civic leader. (Photo by Christina Santucci)

Queens

The years-long delay for a College Point road repair is also holding up the construction of a nearby sports facility, according to a neighborhood civic organization.

The city Economic Development Corp. initially told the Flushing community the reconstruction of Linden Place, between 23rd and 28th avenues, would be completed in the fall of 2009, according to Community Board 7 documents, but the bid has not yet gone out for the job, which is hampering the development of the nearby College Point Fields, according to the Times Ledger.

They’re holding up another project,” said Joe Femenia, chairman of CB 7’s Transportation Committee. “If you’re going to build a roadway and a sports complex, then you want to coordinate it.”

The portion of Linden Place between the two avenues was closed decades ago due to flooding and poor road conditions. Since the late 1980s, the community has been asking the city to not only repair the road, but extend it all they way up to 20th Avenue in order to accommodate traffic coming off the Whitestone Expressway, which acts as a wall isolating the neighborhood and allows only six paths to cross it.

The city Parks Department has the cash on hand to finish constructing baseball diamonds, soccer fields and even a roller skating rink that make up the College Point Fields, but contractors need to wait until reconstruction efforts begin on the road so they can coordinate the installation of essential underground utilities like electricity, according to Femenia.

EDC has dealt with the community throughout the project, but deferred comment to the city Department of Transportation.

The reconstruction of Linden Place was planned in two phases. The first was designed to stabilize the swampy land under the road and was completed in 2010, DOT said. But EDC is preparing a bid for the second phase, which is the physical construction of the road, according to Transportation. Construction of that portion is set to begin next year, DOT said, which means that the rest of the College Point Fields project cannot proceed until then.

In addition to Linden Place, College Point is home to other roadway woes that could be detrimental to the area, according to Femenia.

The College Point Police academy is well on its way to completion, yet the roads surrounding it are sinking into the ground.

Thousands of recruits will be attending class there, where 900 parking spaces will attempt to accommodate commuters.

Ulmer Street, which borders the facility on its eastern side, has sunk into the swampy ground around a large water pipe that has not moved, creating a large bump in the road.

If the street needs to be repaired before the facility is set to open next year and the city has not completed Linden Place, the result would be a traffic nightmare, according to Femenia.

Read More:

EDC project delaying park in College Pt.: Civics

Times Ledger - October 14, 2012 - By Joe Anuta

Flushing Meadows Park Alienation Fight-Mayor's Willets Point Plan Uses Parkland For Shopping Center

Alienation Of Parkland? A rendering of 126th Street, with Citi Field on the left and a revitalized Willets Point on the right. The Bloomberg administration's Willets Point plan includes handing over acres of public parkland in Flushing Meadows Corona Park adjacent to Shea Stadium (CitiField) to be developed into a massive shopping mall. The current plan calls for erecting “Willets West” on the existing Citi Field Parks Department owned parking lot and turn it into a million- square-foot retail and entertainment center with more than 200 stores, movie theaters, restaurants, a parking structure and surface spaces for 2,500 cars. The Mayor indicated that the Related Companies, and Sterling Equities, the real estate firm controlled by the owners of the Mets, will develop 23 acres of Phase 1 including Willets West. Officials hope to break ground in three years. It is expected to take up to 15 years. (Rendering courtesy EDC)

Seth Pinsky, president of the city’s Economic Development Corp., claims a 1961 agreement with the Mets allows the parkland to developed. No word yet whether or not the "agreement" was approved by the state legislation which would be required in order to use the public park land for a non-park purpose. - Geoffrey Croft

Queens

At a breakfast meeting of the Queens Chamber of Commerce on Thursday, the mayor confirmed the latest plan for Willets Point which some people are calling a sweetheart deal for the Mets, according to The Queens Chronicle.

In addition, Bloomberg announced a $500 million proposal by the U.S. Tennis Association to update its facilities in Flushing Meadows Park. [See separate story].

Although plans for Willets Point, also known as the Iron Triangle, were leaked last month, Bloomberg outlined a timeline at the Laguardia Marriott Hotel in East Elmhurst for development initially along 126th Street and eventually in the Citi Field parking lot. The first phase of the Willets Point development is expected to take up to 15 years.

“At Willets Point, where others have seen challenges, we have always seen enormous opportunities,” Bloomberg said. “I expect the project to be built.”

He indicated The Related Companies, a developer, and Sterling Equities, the real estate firm controlled by the owners of the Mets, will develop the 23 acres of Phase 1. The project, he said, will “activate significant acreage” on both sides of Citi Field to create “a true center of economic growth for Queens.”

Now home to auto repair shops and located across the street from Citi Field, plans call for transforming 126th Street into an area with a 200-room hotel, 30,000 square feet of retail space and restaurants and an interim 20-acre surface parking area that can be converted to recreational use when the Mets are not playing at home.

Following completion, the developers will erect “Willets West” on the existing Citi Field parking lot and turn it into a million- square-foot retail and entertainment center with more than 200 stores, movie theaters, restaurants, a parking structure and surface spaces for 2,500 cars.

This is the part of the project that has some in the community scratching their heads. Gene Kelty, chairman of Community Board 7, who attended the breakfast, said he isn’t sure of the plan’s legality. Citi Field and its parking lot sit on public parkland, and Kelty doesn’t think putting up a commercial shopping center is the proper usage.

Jack Friedman, executive director of the Queens Chamber of Commerce, who organized the breakfast at the mayor’s urging, thinks such a use of the parking lot could be alienation of parkland.

But Seth Pinsky, president of the city’s Economic Development Corp., said following the mayor’s speech that a 1961 agreement with the Mets allows for development.

Nevertheless, Kelty said, the plan “worries me” and he wants to see the 1961 agreement. In addition, he is concerned that the other three developers who sought the Willets Point contract were in a less favorable position with the city than the winner and could not compete with the Mets parking lot scheme. “The others didn’t get something special like the Mets,” Kelty added.

He also said that The Related Companies, which built the 20th Avenue shopping center in College Point, does not have a good record with the community. “The company does not take care of the local community,” Kelty said, pointing to the 10 years it took for the firm to agree to a cut-through on the property to alleviate traffic, one that it didn’t even have to pay for.

Once the proposed Willets West is complete, Bloomberg said, the city will go ahead with the federally approved construction of new Van Wyck Expressway access ramps.

Chuck Apelian, vice chairman of CB 7 who also attended, said he is concerned about lack of egress to the proposed shopping center. The site borders Northern Boulevard and Roosevelt Avenue, which are already congested on game days.

He noted the plans call for a six-story parking structure on the north end of the Mets parking lot. “That means everyone will be exiting at one point after a game,” Apelian said. “It will have a huge impact.”

He added that when CB 7 approved the Willets Point plan in 2008, “this is not what we bargained for.”

Phase 1 work will conclude with constructing more retail space, offices, 2,500 housing units and a 280-room hotel in Willets Point. The starting date for the residential area is 2025.

Pinsky said he was assured that the city would prevail without resorting to eminent domain for the remaining businesses in Willets Point that do not want to leave.

Later Phase 1 work calls for erecting a small convention center, up to 5,500 housing units and a park, but there is no timetable set. Dropped from the original plans is construction of a public school in Willets Point.

Pinsky said vehemently that there are no plans to erect a casino at Willets Point.

But before any construction can begin, the city is required to conduct a new environmental review, amend the zoning, hold public hearings and get approval from the City Council. That could take three years.

Then the city will pay $100 million for demolition, remediation and other improvements before work can commence. Bloomberg said the city now has agreements with 95 percent of Willets Point landowners to complete Phase 1.

But some of the business owners, who are members of Willets Point United, do not want to leave or be relocated. One of those, Jerry Antonacci, whose family has owned Crown Carting for years, called the plan, “a sham from day 1, all for them ,” meaning the Mets.

“At the last hour, the citypulled out of eminent domain because if the judges found out about this plan, they would never have allowed eminent domain, and what a black eye that would have been,” Antonacci said. “That’s why the city must now pay the $1.1 million legal bill of WPU that we have forwarded to the courts.”

Michael Rikon, an attorney representing WPU, said Friday there are a number of problems with the mayor’s proposal, but the bottom line is “it’s not legal.”

He noted that the city does not have an assembled site, meaning it doesn’t own all the land, and “It won’t pass muster on the environmental review since the added traffic with the shopping center will be explosive. It’s horrendous to put in a mall there.”

He called the proposal “a gift of taxpayers’ money” to the Mets, adding that it’s illegal to build on public parkland.

Rikon expects WPU to file more lawsuits against the city over the latest proposal.

“Of course, the mayor will be out of office before the plan can start and a new mayor can drop the entire thing,” he added.

Read More:

MAYOR ANNOUNCES DEVELOPMENT IN PARKING LOT AND ON 126TH STREET

Willets Point plan raises new issues

Queens Chronicle - June 21, 2012 - by Liz Rhoades

City To Rescue Yankee Stadium Garage Fiasco

The 9,000-space Yankee parking garage system averages less than 50% occupancy on game days. The city's Economic Development Corp., which authorized $237 million in public bonds for the garages back in 2006, is facing at one of the biggest defaults of a New York City bond in decades. As expected the Bronx Parking Development LLC, the nearly bankrupt company that owns the 9,000-space garage system - is having trouble meeting its financial obligations which will further impact the city's tax payers. To make matters worse due to the Bloomberg administration's poor negotiation, the city is contractually obligated to replace any loss of parking for the team.

Bronx

Low-income housing and a new Bronx hotel may soon rise from the ruins of the Yankee Stadium garage debacle, according to the New York Daily News.

That's because the Yanks' quick exit from postseason has made the outlook even grimmer for Bronx Parking Development LLC, the nearly bankrupt company that owns the 9,000-space garage system.

For the second season in a row, those garages have averaged less than 50% occupancy on game days. Even though Bronx Parking sharply increased prices this year, its garage revenues were so anemic it was forced to withdraw $2.3 million from its dwindling reserves just to meet an Oct. 1 debt service payment, records show.

Another debt service payment of $6.9 million is due in April.

"Things are getting worse each day, and we have no more money coming in until baseball season starts," said one member of the company's board. "We have to do something fast."

Here's the reality: The city's Economic Development Corp., which authorized $237 million in public bonds for the garages back in 2006, is staring at one of the biggest defaults of a New York City bond in decades.

To avoid default, EDC officials have been quietly cobbling together a deal for two of the system's parking lots to be used for affordable housing and retail development.

Under the proposal, recently approved by the parking company's board, Jackson Development and Joy Construction would build 550 units of affordable housing and 45,000 square feet of retail on lots near the existing Gateway Shopping Mall.

The developers would then make annual lease payments to Bronx Parking and, if all approvals go smoothly, groundbreaking could begin by 2013.

"This alternative use will generate additional revenue to pay the debt service on the garage bonds," EDC spokesman David Lombino said.

Even those payments will not be enough to make the garages financially viable, said one official who has reviewed the numbers.

That's why Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz is urging a second solution. Diaz wants one of the garages torn down and replaced with a new 200-room hotel that would generate permanent jobs for the Bronx.

Diaz aides say several major hotel operators have expressed interest informally, and the borough president's economic development agency has set a November deadline for formal proposals.

After allowing the NY Yankees to seize 25.3 acres of public parkland without requiring that it all be replaced, the city under the Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation (BOEDC) - last month announced it was seeking proposals to develop a hotel and conference center on the site of one of Yankee Stadium's parking garages (Garage 8 - above). A clause at the end of Diaz' call for developers notes that the city's agreement with the team requires it to replace any eliminated parking spaces from the team.

Any hotel proposal will undoubtedly need additional subsidies from taxpayers.

Unfortunately, the Bloomberg administration, as part of its original deal with the Yankees for a new stadium in the Bronx, gave in to the team's ridiculous demand for 9,000 parking spaces.

As a result, a costly garage system, one that was poorly conceived to begin with, is on the verge of financial collapse.

Let's hope they get it right this time.

Read More:

City to the rescue of Yankee Stadium garage fiasco;

Lots could make way for affordable housing

New York Daily News - October 14, 2011 - Juan Gonzalez

City Seeks To Develop Yankee Parking Lot Instead Of Replacing Seized Parkland

A Walk In The Park - September 19, 2011

City Losing $ 30 Mil Annually On Yankee/Shea Bloomberg Deal

A Walk In The Park - July 29, 2011

Five Years Later Bronx Residents Still Waiting For Ball fields

A Walk In The Park - March 31, 2011

Yankee Parking Garages Narrowly Avoid Default - Again. Debacle Continues

A Walk In The Park - March 25, 2011

Yankee Tax - Payer Built Parking Garages Near Default

A Walk In The Park - March 15, 2011

Yankee Stadium Parking Garage Developer In Desperate Attempt To Avoid Defaulting On Millions In Tax-Exempt Bonds

A Walk In The Park - October 29, 2010

Yankee Stadium Parking Developer On Verge of Defaulting On $237 Million Of Tax-Exempt Bonds

A Walk In The Park - September 10, 2010

Ground Finally Broken at Heritage Field - Spin Continues

A Walk In The Park - June 29, 2010

Bloomberg's Yankee Follies Continue: Parking Garages Two Years Behind on Rent

A Walk In The Park - June 16, 2010

More Dying Trees

“There are two locations where the trees have been planted and replanted three times, and they’ve died all three times," said Cathryn Swan who has sounded the alarm in Washington Sq. Park.

A number of trees planted in Queens Plaza Streetscape and in Washington Square Park have either died or are dying - resulting in a poor landscape and wasted taxpayer dollars. In Queens contractors working for EDC are nearly finished with a $46 million traffic redesign project, but 20 dead trees (above) have plagued the scenery. Eight trees have died in Washington Square Park over the last two years as part of a $30 million park renovation ushered in by the Bloomberg administration. Critics charge the trees were planted incorrectly and point to a lack oversight and bureaucracy.

Manhattan

When visitors go to Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village, they often lounge next to the famous fountain or admire the Washington Square Arch sitting at the south end of Fifth Avenue. What they may not notice just a few yards away from that renowned arch are the crispy brown leaves atop a dead tree, according to NBC News.

The sickly tree is one of eight that have died in the last two years. All of the doomed arbors were planted as part of a $30 million park renovation championed by the Bloomberg administration.

"The Parks Department is knowingly committing arborcide,” said Cathryn Swan, a neighbor who has been posting pictures of the dead trees on her website, the Washington Square Park Blog.

“There are two locations where the trees have been planted and replanted three times, and they’ve died all three times," Swan said. "I’m worried they’re going to plant those trees a fourth time. I just feel like it ends up being sort of heartbreaking.”

The New York City Parks Department said in a statement that it has experienced a series of "failed plantings" for the Zelkova trees in the area around the park plaza.

"We are investigating potential causes of why trees are not surviving here and will conduct soil tests, examine the drainage, and determine if there is a problem with this particular species," the statement said.

Professional arborist Ralph Padilla (left) diagnosed the planting problem as relatively simple. "It was planted incorrectly," he said after examining the dead tree near the arch. "It was planted too deep."

“The giveaway is that all trees, before they enter the soil flare out slightly at the base,” he added.

The dead tree near the arch does not flare out at all, Padilla said. He said it was possible that private contractors or parks personnel repeated the mistake by burying the root balls of eight trees too far beneath the soil, suppressing oxygen supply. When roots are submerged too deeply, recent transplants can die.

Meanwhile, just over the East River, withered wood is being plucked from another green space. At the Queens Plaza Streetscape, contractors are nearly finished with a $46 million traffic redesign project, but 20 dead trees have plagued the scenery.

The New York City Economic Development Corporation, which manages the project, says the trees are under warranty and will be replaced free of charge. However, because city rules only allow planting during certain seasonal windows, that part of the project is stalled.

Washington Square Park - Northern End. "With all the talk about “MillionTreesNYC” in our city, one blogger wrote on the Washington Square Park Blog, it’s really “OneMillionDeadTrees”. Another p.r. ruse put forth by our Mayor — the plan lacks any built-in initiative to maintain the “million” trees planted on neighborhood streets." (Photo: Courtesy: Washington Square Park Blog)

A Parks Department source told NBC New York six of the eight dead trees in Washington Square Park are under warranty, so the replacement cost will be just $3,000.

Still, critics say time is money. Cathryn Swan blames poor oversight and bureaucracy for the bungled plantings. Each time a tree fails to take root, contractors must wait for the next seasonal window to re-plant. Already, the Washington Square Park renovation has lasted nearly four years. The phase of the project that includes the dead trees was supposed to be wrapped up by 2009.

“People talk about bureaucracy and city government. You want to believe there are people who will step in and stop the bureaucracy sometimes, but with something like this it is clear that is not happening,” Swan said.

Read More:

Village Residents Fume Over Dead Trees

NBC News - September 21, 2011 - By Chris Glorioso

City Finally Looking Into Cause Of Multiple Tree Deaths In Washington Sq. Park

A Walk In The Park - August 25, 2011

City Can't Afford To Build Promised Bushwick Inlet Park

Renderings of Bushwick Inlet Park show a gorgeous idyll. But the city no longer has the money to make good on its promise to build it.

Brooklyn

Williamsburg’s largest waterfront park has stalled — perhaps permanently — because the city doesn’t have the cash to buy the land, according to the Brooklyn Paper.

City officials dropped a bombshell on community leaders last Thursday, revealing that they had no money and no timetable to buy several private properties off Kent Avenue and N. 11th Street surrounding the 28-acre Bushwick Inlet site.

Infuriated community leaders accused Mayor Bloomberg of revoking the city’s long-standing agreement to build parks at the edge of the East River in exchange for rezoning most of the waterfront for luxury high-rises in 2005.

The delay spoiled a series of promising developments for the waterfront park. The city has already purchased two properties at Bushwick Inlet and has the option to buy a third.“The mayor is travelling around the city, trumpeting his proposals for open space, parks and playgrounds as his legacy — and here we have a situation where the city wants to abandon its ironclad commitment that they made with the neighborhood’s residents,” said Assemblyman Joe Lentol (D–Greenpoint).

And last month, the city moved closer to acquiring the Bayside Fuel property at Kent between N. 12th and N. 14th streets after more than a decade of legal battles, sources said.

But about two-thirds of Bushwick Inlet Park remains privately owned — and negotiations for one site have stalled abruptly.

Read More:

City too poor to build promised Bushwick Inlet Park

The Brooklyn Paper - July 20, 2011 - By Aaron Short

Five Years Later Bronx Residents Still Waiting For Ball fields

With a day to go before opening day at Yankee Stadium, baseball fields between 157th and 161st Streets were still under construction, almost five years after the community's fields began to be seized to build the new stadium. (Photo: Caleb Ferguson for The New York Times)
Bronx

On Thursday, the New York Yankees began their regular season at Yankee Stadium, a gleaming $1.5 billion behemoth that opened in the Bronx in 2009 as the new home of one of the richest franchises in sports.

But next to the stadium is a lingering eyesore – a protracted construction project that was supposed to have been transformed into three public ball fields months ahead of opening day. Instead, some coaches and neighborhood residents say, it remains a joyless Mudville, according to the New York Times.

Just as the new stadium was enveloped in controversy, from its financing to its ticket prices, the construction of the three fields has also prompted debate.

The city promised to build the fields, which are starting to take shape directly across 161st Street to the south of the stadium, to replace others that were bulldozed in 2006 to make way for the stadium.

The razed fields, in Macombs Dam Park, were the only regulation baseball diamonds nearby, and were home to neighborhood pickup games and youth leagues, and to teams from schools like All Hallows High School, a parochial institution several blocks away.

Doyle Partners/SantecA rendering of the construction plans for Heritage Park, a city park under development next to Yankee Stadium.

“We’ve gone five years now with no ball fields here,” said Sean Sullivan, 55, the principal of All Hallows and a coach of its baseball team, which has spent five years scouring the city for home fields. “They took the parks away from my kids, and now our team is a bunch of gypsies.”

The team, which played part of its 2009 season in Staten Island, is still searching for a site for its league opener on April 7.

The fields were originally to be completed late last year, as the centerpiece of Heritage Field, a 10-acre park where the former Yankee Stadium stood. But the groundbreaking was delayed until last June, and city officials now say the fields will not open until fall 2011.

“They built the new stadium in record time, but building replacement parkland for the community is literally dragging,” said Helen Foster, who represents the neighborhood on the City Council. “I guarantee you if this was another neighborhood, this project would have been fast-tracked.”

Geoffrey Croft, a frequent critic of the parks department, found fault with the parkland project as shortchanging local residents by putting the new stadium on what was a large, contiguous parcel of natural space, only to replace that property with “scattered and inferior” parks with much less vegetation and natural growth, more artificial surfaces and fewer ball fields.

Ms. Foster and other critics blamed city officials for the Heritage Field delays, saying they allowed the old stadium to remain intact long after the team’s final season there, so items could be painstakingly removed for sale as memorabilia.

Adrian Benepe, the city’s parks commissioner, said the delays were a result of various complications, including tightened restrictions on dismantling the old stadium, problems with nearby subway lines and, recently, the particularly cold and snowy winter. He acknowledged that there had been “some inconvenience to the neighborhood” but said that the delays were “not unusual for a complicated project like this.”

“We’re really making an effort to make this a first-rate park,” he said, “as good as any in the city.”

Mr. Benepe said that the sod for the fields would be installed within a month and that progress on the park, which runs along the west side of River Avenue, was “going like gangbusters now.”

“When people look back they don’t say, ‘Did it take longer than we thought?’ ” he said. “They say, ‘Did it deliver what it promised?’ ”

To build the new stadium, more than 22 acres of parkland were cleared, including Macombs Dam Park and a portion of John Mullaly Park. The property included several ball fields – city officials say four, residents insist it was five.

Heritage Field, a $51 million project, is part of a redevelopment of parkland around the stadium that the city was required to undertake by state law, to replace more than 20 acres of parkland taken for the new stadium. Most of the other projects have been completed.

The effort also included creating or renovating eight smaller parks, ranging from a skateboard area on River Road to Mill Pond Park, a 10-acre waterfront expanse near the Harlem River with 16 championship-caliber tennis courts, a beach, a seasonal ice rink, and a tennis and skate house. Adjacent to Heritage Field is the new Macombs Dam Park, with a sprawling field for football and soccer, a 400-meter track, fitness equipment, a grandstand, four basketball courts and eight handball courts.

The full price of the replacement parks is $195 million, far more than the 2005 estimate of $116 million, according to a 2009 report conducted the city’s Independent Budget Office. City officials said the extra costs resulted from unanticipated environmental cleanup, rising construction costs and project expansions.

Ms. Foster accused the Yankees of doing little to help local residents in one of the poorest parts of the country. “There’s this perception in this area that the Yankees’ needs come before everyone else’s,” she said.

A Yankees spokeswoman said the team donated $10 million to the parks replacement project in 2010, and gave $5.6 million worth of donations – including ballpark events, tickets and merchandise – to various Bronx organizations. The team also helped provide buses for local schools, including All Hallows, in 2009, she said.

Yankees officials said on Wednesday that neighborhood residents have reacted to the parks project in largely positive ways.

“I cannot tell you how many people have come up to me to say thank you because the broken-down parks have been replaced,” said Randy Levine, the team president.

Mr. Sullivan, the All Hallows principal and coach, is still a Yankees fan. Though he has no home field for the school’s team for yet another season, his office is full of Yankees memorabilia, and he has high hopes this year for his team, anchored by an ace pitcher, James Norwood, a heavily scouted right-handed senior.

“I hoped the Yankees could have thrown the kids some tickets and made them feel important during all this,” he said. “I guess we’re just little fish in the big ocean.”

Read More:

In Shadow of Yankee Stadium, 3 Unfinished Ball Fields

New York Times - March 31, 2011 - By Corey Kilgannon

Unfortunately More Spin From City Officials

- By Geoffrey Croft

Adrian Benepe's boss, Mayor Bloomberg was finally forced to admit the building of the three ballfields were delayed in part by the Yankee memorabilia issue. In his final Mayoral debate with Comptroller Thompson held on October 27, 2009, the mayor was asked about the replacement parks and the delays.At first he said attempted to down play it, "It has taken a little longer than we planned, " a minute later however when pressed he folded, "It has taken a lot longer - they were a few environmental issues and then the Yankees took a long time in selling off the memorabilia. I don't know how many people wanted to buy seats but apparently a lot of them did."

What he forgot to do was take responsibility for this, or mention that the NY Mets began taking down its stadium the day after their season ended.

In June 2005, without a single public hearing, city and state elected officials transferred 25.3 acres of historic South Bronx parkland to allow the New York Yankees to build a new stadium.As part of this action, the Bloomberg and Pataki administrations and the Yankees organization promised the community not only that the parks would be replaced, but also that even more parkland would be provided in return. As our 2008 Broken Promises report clearly shows, a close examination reveals that only 21.8 of the 25.3 acres are actually being replaced in the community, resulting in a net loss of nearly 4 acres.

The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, and EDC have repeatedly attempted to hide this deficiency as well as the serious delays in building replacement facilities - some up to three years. This is particularly abhorrent considering the location, the South Bronx, one of America's poorest communities. And this is only the beginning of the broken promises.

Also it was Helen Foster, who now accuses the Yankees of doing little to help local residents, who sponsored the legislation which allowed the Yankees to seize the 25.3 acres of public parkland. At the end on the day ,when everything is built the community will have lost 4 acres of parkland in the community and including two ballfields. As hard as this administration tries, there is no escaping the truth. Yes the Yankee finally agreed to contribute a paltry $ 10 million for replacement parks while over the last two years the new stadium raked in $ 779 million just from the sale of tickets and luxury suites alone.

This has always been a real estate deal plain and simply. The city handed more than 25 acres of historic parkland so the wealthiest sports franchise in America could make billions on the backs of the country's poorest. The American way. This entire project has been about broken promises. Unfortunately they continue.

The Yankees Win. The Yankees Win.