Cries of "Part-Time" Parks Commissioner Grow As Silver Travels The Globe

Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver is a busy man. The globe-trotting Parks Commissioner  was presented with an honorary member lifetime award at Oxford University in London on September 20, 2014.  Over the last five months he racked up more than fifty-thousand frequent flyer miles while also presiding over the country's largest urban park system. 

City-Wide

Where's Mitch-Waldo.

That's the question that is being asked with increasing frequency. 

The globe-trotting new Parks Commissioner has racked up more than fifty-thousand frequent flyer miles not counting his weekly trips to Boston over the last five months NYC Park Advocates has learned.

International destinations include South Africa, Singapore, Spain, London and domestic travel included Kentucky and  Raleigh N.C. for previous commitments which were not cancelled when he became parks commissioner.

Some park employees say they keep track of the whereabouts and views commissioner by his twitter account.

One day a week he travels up to Boston to teach a graduate planning course - Friday afternoon - 2:00- 5:00 at Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

Office Hours: Friday 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.

In between his personal traveling, teaching and lecturing gigs he presides over the largest urban park system in the country.

For the first time in the city's history a new parks commissioner began his job more than four months after a new mayor was sworn in.  Although he technically began his job on May 12,  he didn't move back to the city till June after packing up and selling his house in Raleigh, N.C. while his wife - a teacher - and daughter finished the school year. 

Parks insiders note that with the exception some high profile patronage jobs appointed by Mayor Bloomberg including Betsy Smith and Larry Scott Blackmon who have departed senior management has remained virtually unchanged in the new administration which is not a good sign for an agency that is widely regarded as being in desperate need of reform.

The grumblings have gotten louder within the agency among some long-time park employees who are frustrated that he has not made personnel changes and that he is not further up to speed on the inner workings of the Parks Department. 

"He keeps saying,  ''I don't know' and 'I'll have to get back to you on that,' said a long-time parks employee. 

"He can't be expected to know everything at this stage but certainly being away so much has impacted things here."

At least one long-time parks employee said they saw a silver lining in Silver's responses and even finds them refreshing compared to the previous administration.

"At least he says he doesn't know unlike the previous commissioner (Adrian Benepe) who would simply lie to your face… and smirk."

"He seems open and that he's listening but we'll see if that translates to any real change around here. That will be the proof." 

Several employees in interviews referred to Mr. Silver as a part-time parks commissioner.  

"Being in touch with Liam (Kavanagh First Deputy Commissioner)  and Kate (Spellman, chief of staff)  is not the same as being there running the agency that is what we need, true leadership not running around the world," said another long time employee who like the others spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

"That's great that he is traveling all around the world giving other places advice but our city needs planning."

On Friday the commissioner said that there was nothing to report for 2015 relating to any future travel and teaching plans and would share them as soon as he decides what his plans are and when they have been approved.  Approvals must come from the First Deputy Mayor and Conflict of Interest Board. 

"I have not made any decisions for 2015 and therefore nothing has been approved,"  Commissioner Silver said.

"Speculation at this point would not be productive."

The Parks Department’s controversial plan to continue to replace swaths of the historic Coney Island wooden boardwalk with concrete slabs has been met with fierce opposition.   

For six months area representatives Councilman Mark Treyger and Chaim Deutsch have been trying to get the De Blasio administration to address the environmental and public safety concerns to no avail.

On May 19th,  the council members along fellow member Deborah Rose and Parks Chair Mark Levine sent a letter to Bill De blasio urging the administration to place a moratorium on laying additional concrete slabs across on the boardwalk until adequate engineering and environmental studies can been done. 

"In October 2010... a Bloomberg-administered Parks Department began gutting wood from sections of the Coney Island Boardwalk and replacing them with concrete slabs through a series of “pilot studies,”  the letter stated.

"That designation enabled the replacements to circumvent environmental studies and regulatory oversight, as well as public scrutiny," it read.

"In addition to concerns about the aesthetics of the concrete slabs, there is potential evidence that the concrete may have exacerbated storm-surge damage during Hurricane Sandy."

   

The administration has blown off their concerns.

Treyger and Deutsch finally got a meeting scheduled with Silver in early September but the Parks Department canceled it at the last minute.

A former council member has fared no better. 

Former City Council member Carol Greiser has also been frustrated over not being able to secure a meeting.  

Since June she said she has contacted the commissioner's office close to a dozen times trying to get a meeting on behalf of The Union Square Community Coalition regarding the controversial Union Square Park restaurant issue.  

"They never got back to me, not once," said Ms. Greiser who represented the area around the park for twenty-one years. 

"They were passing the buck as to who was doing the scheduling," Greiser said. 

On Friday, after a reporter contacted the press office for comment, Ms. Greiser said she received a call offering her several potential dates in December, seven months after she first contacted the office.  

Parks Commissioner Silver returned to Raleigh N.C. to attend the Hopscotch Design Festival where he spoke on September 3, 2014.

He returns to his alma mater, The Pratt Institute on Wednesday, Nov 12, 2014 6:00 PM—8:00 PM  to present his vision of the future of NYC parks and public space under the new mayoral administration.  

Conference Destinations

•  Durban,  South Africa,  October 19- 22.  He was the International Keynote speaker at the Planning Africa 2014 conference. 

•   Lexington Kentucky - October 1-3 (which was announced on July 8th months after he was appointed) KeyNote Speaker at the American Planning Association organized  OKI Regional Planning Conference.

•  September 20.  The Royal Town Planning Institute presented Mitchell Silver with honorary member lifetime award at Oxford University,  in London.   

•  September 22. A few days later he scooted over to he University of Sheffield to give a lecture at the Department of Town and Regional Planning for students and the general public. 

•  Raleigh N.C.  September 3-4  Hopscotch Design Festival. 

•  Singapore - July 10-14.  World Cities Summit.   

•  Bilbao, Spain - June 11-14,  Bilbao Urban Innovation and Leadership Dialogues   

Teaching

•  He is a  John T. Dunlop Lecturer of Housing and Urbanization at Harvard University Graduate School of Design in Cambridge, Mass.  where he teaches a graduate planning course on Friday afternoons - 2:00- 5:00 during the fall semester called,   "Planning for the 21st Century: Emerging Trends, Challenges and Opportunities/Fall 2014"  

On March 21, 2014 Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the appointment of Mitchell Silver as the city’s next parks commissioner a press conference at Seward Park on the Lower East Side. Commissioner Silver, Mayor Bill de Blasio, and First Deputy Parks Commissioner Liam Kavanagh who has largely been running the agency this year confer moments before the announcemnt.  (Photo: Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates) Click on image to enlarge.

Read More:

Globe-Trotting Parks Dept. Head Too Busy to Meet, Community Groups Say

DNAinfo - November 3, 2014 -  By James Fanelli

City Loses Millions As Illegal Vendors Run Rampant In City Parks

Invisible  Babies. An illegal vendor (left) pours a Heineken into a plastic cup while the other two woman selling Corona beer await customers.  In Flushing Meadows-Corona Park (FMCP) women roam the 900 acre park selling alcohol from covered baby carriages, part of the park's vast network of illegal commerce that has been allowed to operate for years.  In FMCP there is not a single dedicated PEP officer for 900 acres despite a steady stream of unlicensed vendors in a park that also has one of the city's highest crime rates.      

"This has been going on for years," said a Parks Enforcement Patrol (PEP) officer. "They (illegal vendors) know we have little man power and the agency doesn't care. Do you know how much the city loses throughout the city each year, millions." 

Legal vendors who are subject to city Health Department inspections and fees say the number of illegal vendors is growing and taking away their business.    

(Photos: Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates) click on images to enlarge. 

City-Wide

By Geoffrey Croft

The city is losing millions of dollars in revenue annually from illegal vendors while the Bloomberg administration does little to combat the problem.

In Flushing Meadows Park it's a wild wild west, cat and mouse game as dozens of illegal vendors work openly in the 900 acre park.  Women pushing "invisible  babies" do brisk business selling alcohol from covered baby carriages, beer is hidden in sewers to avoid detection,  while others sell food, ice cream, drinks and snacks and toys.

In Ferry Point Park in the Bronx illegal vendors sell alcohol and food openly while men gamble on home made roulette tables under the cover of trees in the poorly maintained park.

Men gamble on a roulette table under the cover of trees at Ferry Point Park.

In Brighton Beach and Coney Island every few minutes men and woman push icee carts along the sand, while bootleggers hawk nutcrackers, a potent mix of hard liquor fruit juices, part of a vast underground but open net work of illegal vending on city park property. 

While at the same time some illegal vendors say the city doesn't provide adequate opportunities for new ones to vend legally in city parks. 

Licensed vendors say they can not compete. In Flushing Meadows Park alone ice cream truck concessionaires pay the Parks Department up to $ 32,000 annually in addition to Heath Department fees, liability Insurance, and in the case of Mr. Softee - a $ 3000 annual franchise fee,  on top of the  $  85,000 - $ 120,000 required to purchase the trucks.  

Mean while illegal vendors sell from make-shift home made push carts, baby carriages and bicycles that by-pass permits and insurance.  

Legal vendors also note that the Parks Department sets the prices they are allowed to charge while unlicensed ones are not under the same constraints.  Some legal ones have been forced to lower prices in order to try and compete.

Critics also point out that park patrons being allowed access to unlimited amounts of alcohal is a concern for getting behind wheel to drive home. 

Show Me The Money.  Jorje "Mario" Llubisaca, 41,  makes another illegal sale a few yards away from a licensed ice cream truck who is required to pay the Parks Department's Revenue Division $ 32,000 annually.   Law enforcement officials say they have confiscated up to four carts a day from Jorje who has operated brazenly in the open in Flushing Meadow's Corona Park for years and believe he may also be responsible for operating other illegal vendors in the park.   Sources say he keeps spare push-carts in a van parked in the park near the Queens Museum and has also used the alias, Manuel Angamarca.

 A steady stream of unlicensed vendors work the park.   Illegal vendors are a staple in many parks throughout the city. 

Illegal vendors take away revenue not only from owners but also from the workers who's salaries are often based on a percentage of what they sell.

Some vendors say they are under the constant threat of violence from illegal vendors while the city does little to protect them.   They say you are lucky if law enforcement occasionally conduct sweeps and confiscate illegal items but nothing is constant and certainly there is not a permanent uniform presence needed to deter this activity.   

Legal vendors say they constantly complain to the Parks Department's revenue division - who oversee the agency's vast array of concessionaires but their concerns fall on deaf ears.  They complain that the city refuses to protect them while being told there's nothing they can do because they don't have the resources to address the issues.

"Instead they laughingly tell us to take photos and call 311. What a joke," complained a long-time licensed vendor who has multiple park permits. 

"They say deal with it. We send photos,  it does nothing.  Revenue (division) knows the problems.  We've asked for more enforcement but they blow you off.  You complain and they tell you there's nothing they can do they don't have the resources.   

But if you don't have their check postmarked by the first of the month, they have no problem assessing late fees,  they have the resources for that," the vendor said. 

"They (illegal vendors) take a nice bite out of what the City should be getting."

According to the Parks Department the revenue division is responsible for collecting more than $ 110 million dollars from approximately 500 concessions currently operating in parks.   

The division is headed by long-time Michael Bloomberg family friend Assistant Commissioner Elizabeth "Betsy" Smith. 

The lack of professionalism and accountability within the revenue division has long been an issue with concessionaires.  The division has also been the subject of several Comptroller audits.  

"We call them the invisible babies," said another vendor of the woman pushing covered baby carriages selling items.

"We joke - your babies must be suffocating under those heavy towels." 

Erick Soto - displaying a Parks Department permit to vend - operates a Mister Softee truck near the Unisphere at Flushing Meadows Corona Park. He says brazen illegal vendors cut into his business and other businesses.  Soto said there is little enforcement to keep the vendors away. He's been threatened,  spat on and even menaced with a knife by aggressive vendors peddling food from baby carriages and shopping carts.  

"My wife doesn't want me working here anymore," said Mr. Soto.  "She's afraid I won't come home one day." 

Erick Soto operates a Mister Softee truck near the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows Corona Park and says he's been threatened,  spat on and even menaced with a knife by an aggressive vendor peddling food from baby carriage near his truck.  He says brazen illegal vendors cut into his business and other businesses.  

"We are all suffering," Mr. Soto said, pointing out that there is little enforcement to keep the vendors, who pay no fees and avoid health inspections, away. 

"I don't know if I'll be back next year," he said.  "My wife doesn't want me working here anymore. She's afraid I won't come home one day." 

There is not a single dedicated Park Enforcement Patrol (PEP) officer permanently assigned to patrol 900 acres of FMCP, the largest park in Queens.  

This week as few as three PEP officers were available to patrol the entire borough of Queens. 

"We used to have 24 hour coverage and vendor details but under Bloomberg and Benepe they tried to dismantle enforcement,"  said Local 983 president Joe Puleo who represents PEP officers.

"It's totally out of control. We don't have the resources needed to deal with quality-of-life issues much less serious crime," he said.  

Two years ago concessionaires in FMCP said they received letters from the revenue division instructing them to suspend vending during the US. Open.

"It was outrageous, we have permits and they had the nerve to suspend working during the Open so they can make more money. Are you kidding," one vendor in the park commented. 

 "We did not comply.

 It's amazing they get away with this, there is no accountability "  

An unlicensed vendor makes another sale while the Ice cream truck in the background is required to pay the Parks Department's Revenue Division $ 32,000 annually for the right to sell in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. Despite numerous complaints to the revenue division the agency refuses to protect the legal vendors from unlicensed ones who take away business and potential put the public's health at risk by allowing the sale of food without Health Department inspections or permits.   The legal vendors say they also fear for their lives after being threatened with violence.     

The revenue division is headed by by long-time Michael Bloomberg family friend Assistant Commissioner Elizabeth "Betsy" Smith.  

Sewage Drainage.  One of the many locations where Illegal vendors selling alcohol stash product as part of the cat-and-mouse game in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.  The black bag was filled with ice when PEP officers pulled numerous beers from there last week.  



Jorje  Llubisaca passes two other illegal vendors selling mangos from baby carriages - part of the park's vast network of illegal vendors operating openly in the park. 

Beer bottle caps litter tree roots in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, a common site in many parks.

NYPD in Central Park issuing a summons to an illegal vendor. Legal vendors say the selling of products by unlicenced ones is often overlooked by law enforcement. 

A vendor makes his way from Brighten to Coney Island Beach.

Vendors sell openly on the Coney island boardwalk and on the beach.

Three vendors within an ear shot work the beach. 

Coney Island. 

A confiscated cooler filled with beer from Ferry Point Park.  

(Photos: Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates) click on images to enlarge. 

Read More:

City parks are turning into battle zones for food vendors 

Illegal vendors tuck booze, snacks into baby carriages squeezing

out licensed food trucks and carts 

New York Daily News - August 9, 2013 -  By Maya Guimaraes and Lisa L. Colangelo  

Parks Dept. Extends Private Tennis Deal Through 2017 - CB 8 Rejects Encroachment On Ballfield

Parks Department Rejects Community's Demand To Restore Seized Ballfield Time In The Fall

Overstaying Its Welcome. Without notifying the community, once again, the Bloomberg administration struck a deal to allow the Sutton Place Tennis Club consession to extend its season whereby displacing park users in a community that has the least amount of park and open space in the entire city. The consession is located in the Queensboro Oval Park softball field under the 59th Street Bridge at York Avenue in Manhattan. The tennis concession charges the highest price of any tennis concession on NYC park land - up to $ 195 per hour. (Photo: Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates) Click on photo to enlarge

Betsy Smith, head of revenue and marketing for the Parks Department is scheduled to appear this evening at 6:30 pm at a special CB 8's Parks committee meeting. The agency has refused to answer a number of questions relating to the deal.

Manhattan

By Geoffrey Croft

Irate ballfield users and Community Board 8 members were informed by the Parks Department just two weeks ago that the agency had granted the city's most expensive tennis concession on public parkland an additional six weeks to operate in another behind closed door deal orchestrated by the Parks Department's revenue division.

Without notifying the community the Bloomberg administration struck a deal to allow the private tennis club to extend its season whereby displacing park users in a community has the least amount of park and open space in the entire city. The Sutton Place Tennis Club concession charges the highest price of any tennis concession on NYC park land - up to $ 195 per hour.

The secretly negotiated deal allows the tennis club bubbles to stay up for an additional six weeks each year until 2017.

Sources told A Walk In The Park that Tony Scolnick/Sutton East Tennis Club had threatened to sue the City/Parks Department over the cancellation of a 2009 contract that would have allowed the tennis concessionaire to operate on the ballfield year-round.

According to Betsy Smith, head of revenue and marketing for the Parks Department and Mayor Bloomberg family friend, the reason for the extension was because the concessioner made a "substantial investment" to convert the bubble to year-around.

Despite repeated attempts the Parks Department has refused to provide any documentation of investments made, or answer when the contract was signed, or how much in additional revenue the City/Sutton East Tennis Club is expected to receive. A copy of the Sutton East Tennis Club six week extension agreement has also not been made available.

Last week Community Board 8 took a strong position against the Parks Department's actions and approved a resolution by a vote of 36 to 0.

In a April 23rd letter to Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, (below) the Board pointed out that the Parks Departement agreed in 2010 to honor "THE PUBLIC’s desire to maintain the Queensboro Oval Park as a public space for sports leagues and for the use of the community at large for four straight months each year. " They also stated that the public should be compensated for the six-weeks of lost access to the Queensboro Oval this spring by extending public access to the park by six weeks this fall and revert to the original agreement of four consecutive months.

The Parks Department however has rejected this.

A Parks Department spokesperson said that the tennis bubble will stay up until June 15 every year through 2017, when their current contract expires, and that they do not plan on offering extensions of ball field permits through the fall.

Questions have been raised once again why the community was only finding out about this deal now, when since at least December 2011 Sutton East Tennis Club has been advertising tennis through June 14th, long after the ballfields are supposed to be available to the public.

This lack of transparency is particularly inflammatory considering the last time the issue of the extending the tennis concession surfaced in 2010 was when the agency's revenue division struck a behind closed door deal to allow the private tennis club on public park to go from seasonal to year-round. The Community Board vote came five months after the concessionaire had already signed a contract with Parks. Opponents of the plan charge they had not been properly notified of the proposal.

For over 40 years, The Queensboro Oval Field, located along York Avenue under the 59th Street Bridge in Manhattan, has been a home to baseball, softball, soccer, football, schools, leagues, families, joggers, and children learning to ride bikes and pick-up recreation activities in a beloved public park. It has been and continues to be a vital resource for countless people.

Betsy Smith is scheduled to appear this evening at 6:30 pm at a special CB 8's Parks committee meeting. (See Below)

Queensboro Oval Park Ballfield (Image: Google)

For much of the year, the Queensboro Oval park under the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge is rented out to a concessionaire to operate a tennis bubble. But for the past several years, every spring the giant bubble is dismantled to make way for softball and baseball leagues. This year, however, the Parks Department has decided to shave six weeks off the ball-playing season and give that time to the Sutton East Tennis Club, a move that has some Upper East Side residents seeing red, according to Our Town.

Two years ago, the Parks Department backed off of a plan to allow the tennis bubble to remain operational all year after strong opposition from the community, allowing sports groups access to the space for four months every summer. The community didn’t find out about the recently determined extended tennis season until it was announced at a Community Board 8 committee meeting two weeks ago, and the full board strongly condemned the move, resolving to ask the Parks Department to extend the baseball permit season by six weeks into the fall to compensate for the lost time.

“I feel that it is a slap in the face to the parks committee, to CB 8, to the users of the field and to the people of the community board, not only 8 but 6, and other residents of the city who have seen this grow and grow and grow—this beast taking over a public park in your community,” said resident Bradley Cohen at the meeting.

Cohen said he couldn’t get an answer for weeks on why his request for a permit for ball playing was delayed, even though the Parks Department was in the middle of negotiating this new arrangement.

Parks Department Assistant Commissioner Betsy Smith, who has agreed to attend the upcoming CB 8 Parks Committee meeting on Thursday, April 26 to answer questions, said in a statement that the reason the Department decided to extend the tennis season was that “the Sutton East Tennis Club had already made a substantial investment to convert the bubble to a year-round operation based on the execution of the contract amendment and its registration by the comptroller.

“It was therefore prudent to address the legitimate concerns raised by the concessionaire, and we reached an agreement with them to extend the indoor season by six weeks,” she said. She also called the ball fields “vastly underused.”

A Parks Department spokesperson said that the tennis bubble will be able to stay up until June 15 every year through 2017, when their current contract expires, and that they do not plan on offering extensions of ball field permits through the fall.

“I object to the Parks Department citing the investment that the tennis club put into the bubble, because the tennis club knows full well how the community feels about the availability of the park to the neighborhood. Calling for the need to be compensated for making improvements is disingenuous,” said board member Sarah Chu at the meeting, a sentiment that many others echoed.

The Community Board also voted to ask the Parks Department to require that the tennis club restore the park to its original state when they dismantle the bubble, and many members expressed dismay over the way the Department handled the entire situation.

Geoffrey Croft, who runs the watchdog group NYC Park Advocates, said it’s particularly frustrating because many community members fought so hard against the tennis bubble being allowed to stay up year round and thought they had secured their summer space.

“We successfully fought back against that, and now we find out about another underhanded move, that the city is trying to give this guy a deal because his contract from two years ago fell apart,” Croft said.

Meeting Date:

Thursday, April 26, 2012 - 6:30pm

Meeting Location:

New York Blood Center

310 East 67th Street (First-Second), Auditorium

New York, NY

1. The Parks Dept.'s Betsy Smith will explain the Parks Dept.'s decision to reduce by six weeks this spring the public's access to the Queensboro Oval at E. 59th St.

Margaret Price and Barbara Rudder, Parks Committee Co-Chairs

April 23, 2012

Hon. Adrian Benepe

Commissioner

Department of Parks and Recreation

The Arsenal

830 Fifth Avenue

New York, New York 10021

Re: Discussion of the Parks Department's plans to extend until mid-June a tennis facility's use of the Queensboro Oval at East 59th St.

Dear Commissioner Benepe:

At the Full Board meeting on Wednesday, April 18, 2012, Manhattan Community Board 8 approved the following resolution by a vote of 36 in favor, 0 opposed and 2 abstentions and 1 not

voting for cause:

WHEREAS Community Board 8M passed a resolution in February 2010, stating that it unequivocally opposes extending the use of the Queensboro Oval—which is public parkland— to a privately owned year-round franchise tennis facility, and maintains that the Oval must be made available for public use for four contiguous months a year; and

WHEREAS the Parks Dept. agreed in 2010 to honor THE PUBLIC’s desire to maintain the Queensboro Oval Park as a public space for sports leagues and for the use of the community at large for four straight months each year; and

WHEREAS the Parks Dept. has extended, without prior notice to the community, the terms of a private tennis facility’s use of the Queensboro Oval for an additional six weeks each year, thereby shortening the public’s ability to use the space by six weeks, and

WHEREAS the Queensboro Oval is typically left in disrepair when the tennis facility dismantles its “bubble” facility; therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED that Community Board 8, Manhattan, reaffirms its positions stated in its resolution of February, 2010 and urges the Parks Dept. to honor its agreement with the community to maintain the Queensboro Oval as public land for sports teams and the public at large for four contiguous months each year.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that CB8M asks the Parks Dept. to compensate the public for six-weeks of lost access to the Queensboro Oval this spring by extending public access to the park by six weeks this fall and revert to the original agreement of four consecutive months starting in 2013, and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that CB8M urges the Parks Dept. to ensure that the Queensboro oval lessee restore the field to its proper parkland condition after the tennis bubble is dismantled.

Sincerely,

Nicholas D. Viest Margaret Price and Barbara Rudder

Chair Co-Chairs, Parks Committee

Read More:

East Siders Fit to Burst over Tennis Bubble

Our Town - April 26, 2012 - By Megan Finnegan Bungeroth

Queensboro Oval Park Ballfield /Tennis Privatization Fight Heats Up - Again

A Walk In The Park - April 15, 2012 - Geoffrey Croft

Community Board 8 Rejects Year Round Tennis Concession

A Walk In The Park - March 18, 2010 - By Geoffrey Croft

Upper East Side Land Grab As Parks' Looks to Sell Ballfield to Tennis Concessionaire

A Walk In The Park - February 17, 2010 - By Geoffrey Croft