Parks Department Leases To HBO In Cedar Grove-New Park Not Created

Cedar Grove cottages remain abandoned behind a chain link fence erected by the Parks Department in September. Since the City closed the property critics charge the public has less access to the site than when the residents of Cedar Grove occupied the property.

Besides the cottages, the park's two tennis courts, baseball field, basketball court are not available for the community. Local schools and community groups used to use the facilities. The City's conversion of the bungalow community into a public park appears to be at least three years away. (Photo: Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates.) Click on Images to enlarge

The Parks Department did not immediately return a request for comment.

Staten Island

Press Release

June 22, 2011

NYC PARKS DEPARTMENT SCAMS STATEN ISLAND RESIDENTS

Parks Officials Lie To The Public About True Plans For Cedar Grove Beach and Violate NYS Freedom of Information Law

Once again the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation has misled the public and elected officials about one of their projects. Documents recently obtained by residents of Cedar Grove Beach Club show that the Parks Department, while claiming to “open up the park for public use”, has actually licensed use of the site to a production company filming Boardwalk Empire for HBO. In fact, the public has less access to the site now than they had when the residents of Cedar Grove occupied the property. Members of the community can no longer ride their bikes, walk their dogs or go fishing on the land. Fences and Parks personnel prohibit these activities.

The contract between Parks and Bootleg Productions, which has a termination date of August 31, 2011 and allows for an unspecified number of extensions, actually earns the City far less money than was paid each year by Cedar Grove Beach Club. The contract calls on the production company to provide Parks with “in-kind donations of goods and services of at least or greater than, $80,000”. Cedar Grove Beach Club paid more than twice that each year and maintained the entire site at no cost to the taxpayer.

In fact, since the Parks Department evicted the residents, it has let Cedar Grove Beach become a filthy wasteland and allowed the shore to become strewn with debris. Before the recent “Grand Opening” Memorial Day weekend, it was the production company, not Parks, who cleaned the portion of beachfront which Parks is allowing the public to access. In addition, only about half the beachfront has been cleaned. The rest remains a litter-strewn eyesore which is partly why Parks Department employees have refused access to the public. When Cedar Grove Beach Club maintained the site, the entire stretch of beach was cleaned and maintained weekly and the public was allowed full access to the beach and ocean.

“It certainly seems that Parks has evicted us and our families so that they can give the site over to a company to use as a taxpayer-subsidized back lot!” Glenn Sheehan, Vice President of Cedar Grove Beach Club stated. “All along our elected officials and residents of the New Dorp community were asking, ‘Why now? Where is the demand?’ It seems that Parks is willing to sacrifice one hundred plus years of Staten Island history so the Commissioner can get a byline on Boardwalk Empire!” Sheehan went on to say.

“The site should be returned to the residents of Cedar Grove Beach Club who maintained it and preserved it at their own expense, at least until the City has a real plan and the permits and funding to complete it.”

Brief History

The Last of Staten Island’s Beach Colonies

Cedar Grove Beach Club is a collection of 41 historic beach bungalows largely built between 1913 and 1940 in New Dorp, Staten Island. The 75-cottage original community was established around 1907 as one of many beach campgrounds during the heyday of Staten Island’s east shore vacation resorts. Today the Beach Club, located south of the corner of Ebbitts Avenue and Cedar Grove Avenue, is a close-knit community of families who have been on the beach for over five generations. In the 1960s, led by Robert Moses, New York City seized land and cottages via eminent domain as part of a plan to build an expressway through the site. While the road was never built, the scheme resulted in the destruction of almost all of Staten Island’s historic seaside resort communities. Cedar Grove alone escaped demolition when Nixon signed the Gateway Act into law in 1972. The bungalow owners and the Beach Club have rented the property back from the City for nearly 50 years while being responsible for all maintenance of the public beach, playgrounds and property.

Residents Evicted

An impressive, bipartisan outcry of calls and letters were submitted to Parks Commissioner Benepe and Mayor Bloomberg from numerous elected officials, including Council members Vincent Ignizio, James Oddo and Deborah Rose, Manhattan City Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito (chair of the Parks Committee of the City Council), Congressman Michael McMahon, NYS Senators Andrew Lanza, Frank Padavan, and Diane Savino, Assembly Members Janele Hyer-Spencer, Matthew Titone and Michael Cusick, as well as the New Dorp Central Civic Association, the Historic Districts Council and hundreds of community members, who called for Parks to abandon their plans to destroy this important historic district and evict 41 families from the beach. Despite tremendous opposition, the Administration went ahead with efforts to force the longtime residents of the Cedar Grove Beach Club to leave their homes on September 30th, 2010, to make way for what the Parks Department claimed would be a “public park.”

Violation of NYS Freedom of Information Law

In addition to the bait-and-switch game the Parks Department has played on the residents of Staten Island with the Cedar Grove debacle, there are many other Parks transgressions: the Ocean Breeze Track facility, the host of problems surrounding the collapse of Cromwell Center into the harbor, the “disappearance” of $8M allocated to help save Goodhue Woods, the unwarranted destruction of Benjamin Soto Skate Park, the “rehabilitation” of Mahoney Playground, as well as countless other missteps. We can now add blatant violation of NY State Law onto the list. On April 19, 2011, community activist and former Cedar Grove Beach Club resident David Young requested various documents from the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation under entitlement of the NY State Freedom of Information Law.

Acting on information from a well-placed source working within the Department of Parks and Recreation headquarters in Manhattan, Mr. Young included in his FOIL request that he be given all emails to and from Parks Department employees that contained, among other things, the names “Oddo,” “Ignizio,” “Molinaro,” and “McMahon.” Said Young; “I included those names because the information that I have suggests that various high-ranking Parks officials were making fun of our elected officials and the residents of Staten Island.” Young continued, “The residents of Staten Island are tired of being treated as second-class citizens by this Administration. That Parks Department officials chose to disrespect our elected officials and make fun of my neighbors is unacceptable by any standard and they must be held accountable for their actions.” The initial request was constructively denied.

Following the appropriate procedures under the Statute, Young then filed an appeal of denial directly to Commissioner Benepe and the designated Records Access Officer for the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation. To this date, Parks has not acknowledged receipt of the appeal, even though Mr. Young has proof of delivery. To ignore a FOIL request is a direct violation of the Statute and Mr. Young plans to bring forth action against Parks and Commissioner Benepe in State Supreme Court under Article 78. When asked for comment, Young said; “It is unfortunate that I may have to take them to court in order to force them to comply with the law. I am confident my information is accurate. Otherwise, Parks would have at least acknowledged my request and dragged me through a long, torturous process. There is obviously something they are hiding, because if there wasn’t, they would have simply complied with the law, as they are required.”

“Our elected representatives, especially Council members Oddo and Ignizio, continue to support the residents of New Dorp, Oakwood and Cedar Grove Beach in our efforts to find out what is really going on. They want to help us try to discover the reason why there was such a rush to evict the residents of the Cedar Grove Beach community. For them to be mocked and ridiculed for their efforts by Parks officials in emails poking fun at residents of Staten Island by calling us “backwards” and “trash,” amongst other things, is quite frankly, an outrage.”

Then there remains the highly questionable presence of HBO. Numerous times the Parks Department has stated in print, that it was illegal for Cedar Grove Beach Club to occupy this site and that it must be further opened up to the public. If this was in fact true, a claim that the Parks Department has yet to provide proof of , then how is it now legal for HBO to have a license agreement and occupy the same property? HBO, who has replaced the original Cedar Grove residents as the tenants in the fragile cottages and has disturbed the surrounding neighborhood with its hordes of equipment and personnel, is currently filming the series “Boardwalk Empire” primarily in cottage #4. Bootleg Productions, the production company who is also occupying the property, does not appear to be acting as proper caretakers of any of the other cottages, nor the beach. It seems that they have disregarded any historic value which the cottages represent, since they have applied for permission to demolish three of the homes to get a better view for their cameras.

Parks has stated in past reports that it is their intention to allow the cottages to remain “exposed to the elements,” with absolutely no attempt to preserve them regardless of fact that the cottages have been recommended for addition to the National Registry of Historic Places by the NY State Historical Preservation Office. Parks has been ordered by SHPO to protect the stuctures, and so far it appears that the order has been ignored. Ironically, even though Parks Commissioner Benepe has repeatedly stated that he believes the cottages have no historic value, HBO specifically wants to produce its series “Boardwalk Empire” at Cedar Grove because the story takes place in a beachfront community during the 1920s. Obviously the Cedar Grove cottages represent the perfect authentic historic setting in which to film.

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For more information about this topic, to schedule an interview or to obtain copies of the documents referenced in this release, please don not hesitate to call David Young 516-521-2331 or via email at CGBC1911@gmail.com

Cedar Grove Beach Reopening Delays

A Walk In The Park - February 27, 2011 - By Geoffrey Croft

Cedar Grove Beach Club Turned Into Private Filming Location

A Walk In The Park - February 19, 2011

Cedar Grove Beach Reopening Delays

Parks told the Advance in September that much of the work was expected to take place between this summer and next, but the latest documents show completion is now expected by 2014.

"[Parks] doesn't have any of their permits, they don't have all their ducks in a row," said Roy Wood, the beach club president whose parents first bought a bungalow there in 1954. "They could have pulled all their permits and let us stay there for another few years. It would have generated income. It's going to be years before anything gets done."

Cedar Grove cottages remain abandoned behind a chain link fence erected by the Parks Department in September. The City's conversion of the bungalow community into a public park appears to be at least three years away. A public scoping meeting is being held on March 16 from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Lou Caravone Services Building of Community Board 2 at Sea View Hospital Rehabilitation Center and Home. The Draft Scope of Work For Great Kills Park/Cedar Grove Beach Rehabilitation EIS, was completed earlier this month. (Photos: Geoffrey Croft'/NYC Park Advocates.) Click on Images to enlarge.

Staten Island

The seaside bungalows at Cedar Grove sit in the sand as if waiting for summer's arrival. But for the first time in nearly a century, there will be no opening dance and no raising of American flags to signal the start of a new season.

There will be a lifeguard and temporary restrooms come Memorial Day and the beach will be open for swimming like the city Parks Department promised when it reclaimed the privately-leased stretch of land at the foot of Ebbits Street in September, according to the Staten Island Advance.

But the transformation of Cedar Grove Beach into a public park -- including demolition of the cottages, construction of a new playground and bike path and upgrades to the parking lot and sports fields initially anticipated by 2012 -- may still be three years away.

That's according to the most extensive plans outlined by Parks so far, and the subject of a public scoping meeting to be held March 16 from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Lou Caravone Services Building of Community Board 2 at Sea View Hospital Rehabilitation Center and Home.

An Environmental Assessment Statement completed earlier this month found there could be the "potential for significant adverse environmental impacts" in the agency's plans to incorporate Cedar Grove's 78 acres into 10.6 miles of "continuous, open public beach" stretching from the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to Crescent Beach in Great Kills.

Sign of the Times. "Three Fools" A sign placed along the beach in September depicts Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro, Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe and Mayor Michael Bloomberg as the Three Stooges. The sign reads "Three Fools Who Never Came To See For Themselves.... Now There Goes Our Neighborhood... Thank You, Cedar Grove... For Being Staten Island's Last Paradise All these Years. A Shame it Has To End This Way.

Now, Parks must wait on the outcome of an Environmental Impact Statement before applying for permits from city, state and federal agencies -- but the city comptroller has yet to sign off on its preparation.

Plans also are on hold in accordance with the property's designation by the State Historic Preservation Office as eligible for state and national historic listings.

The delays come as no surprise to those who have summered at Cedar Grove for decades.

"[Parks] doesn't have any of their permits, they don't have all their ducks in a row," said Roy Wood, the beach club president whose parents first bought a bungalow there in 1954. "They could have pulled all their permits and let us stay there for another few years. It would have generated income. It's going to be years before anything gets done."

In its Draft Scope of Work For Great Kills Park/Cedar Grove Beach Rehabilitation EIS, Parks outlines a two-phase plan for the project.

Phase 1 includes the demolition of a majority of the cottages, removal of the foundations and oil tanks and the capping and shutting of utilities. Some of the cottages would be salvaged for concessions, comfort stations and headquarters for lifeguards and Parks Enforcement Patrol officers.

Eleanor Dugan said Parks underestimated what it would take to create a public park at Cedar Grove, especially since the beachfront -- which has always been open to the public -- was maintained by the residents out of their own pockets and at no cost to the taxpayers. They have since sold the sand-sifters and other machinery they used to keep the beach clean.

"The Parks Department came in, they made certain assumptions and they were unrealistic assumptions," said Mrs. Dugan, a West Brighton resident whose family first rented a place at Cedar Grove in 1970 after her husband was discharged from the Navy. "They didn't anticipate the problems in turning this land around."

Cedar Grove, one of dozens of beach colonies that dotted the shoreline during the borough's heyday as a resort community, was condemned and acquired by the city in 1958 when Robert Moses, the city's master builder, envisioned a shore parkway running along the borough's coastline.

When the parkway failed to materialize, the city agreed to lease back the land with the understanding it could take it back whenever it wanted. The decision to reclaim the beach last year when the lease expired pitted elected officials against Parks and raised questions about the agency's ability to finance such a project as the city continued to tighten its belt.

No capital commitments have been made beyond $1.8 million in yearly rental payments kept in an account started by then-Parks Commissioner Henry Stern in 1992. That's enough for demolition of all but 12 of the bungalows at a cost of $1.1 million, asbestos abatement at $400,000 and conversion of existing structures at $300,000.

Though the residents boarded up their cottages for the final time in September, they still keep strong ties to their summer-time paradise.

"We will still go on as a community and a group," Mrs. Dugan said, "even if we don't have Cedar Grove."

The adjacent Parks Department maintained New Dorp Beach is filled with debris including remains from an abandoned hospital. By sharp contrast, the pristine Cedar Grove Beach was maintained by the Cedar Grove Beach Club, a century-old community of summer beach front cottages. The bungalows were rented from the city under a concession license with the Parks Department. The agency evicted them in the Fall 2010.

Read More:

Cedar Grove's transformation hits a snag

Staten Island Advance - February 26, 2011 - By Stephanie Slepian

Cedar Grove Beach Club Turned Into Private Filming Location

A Walk In The Park - February 19, 2011

New Dorp Bungalows

February 28, 2011 - By Nathan Kensinger

Cedar Grove Beach Club Turned Into Private Filming Location

October 8, 2010 - The Parks Department's Park Enforcement Officers guard the main vehicle entrance to Cedar Grove Beach Club. In September, the Parks Department, which owns the land, forced the residents off the 45-acre site. The Bloomberg Adminisration is allowing the HBO series "Boardwalk Empire" to film at the site while it is still off limits to the public. (Photos By Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates) Click on images to enlarge.

Staten Island

A little bit of TV glitz has come to Staten Island, as the HBO series "Boardwalk Empire" has set up shop at the former Cedar Grove Beach Club, much to the chagrin of former beach residents who were booted out with promises that the space would be made public. NY1's borough reporter Amanda Farinacci filed the following report.

Cottage Number 4 at the Cedar Grove Beach Club looked the same for years, but thanks to a facelift from the HBO production Boardwalk Empire, the old home looks a little different.

Cedar Grove Beach Club Cottages.

"They've added columns and a little portico to it. I know, I was down in the beginning of January and they were fixing glass windows and they've taken down a lot of the screens so you could see the windows better," said former Cedar Grove resident Eleanor Dugan. "So apparently they're going to be filming out here from the outside."

The Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment and the Parks Department both confirm that they have made an arrangement with "Boardwalk Empire" to allow the show to film scenes at Cedar Grove Beach, though it is unclear for how long and when filming will next take place there.

Crews were out earlier in the week, filming on both Tuesday and Wednesday.

There are few details about the upcoming park, except that it will be built in stages.

The agency has sealed the site to the public, and insists it is readying the space, though former residents are not so sure.

"I think it's a little hypocritical," said former Cedar Grove resident John Murphy. "They said they're going to open it up to the public, and obviously they're not doing that. But private concerns can actually use it, and I think that's very wrong."

They say "Boardwalk Empire" makes a lot of sense because it is set in the late 1920s, during Prohibition. They also say that is why Cedar Grove should be preserved.

"It has the historical value, and that's what they were looking for in the production," said Murphy. "And we have it, we have it right here."

The state is still considering whether to give the area historic designation, which would force the city to preserve some of it.

Sign of the Times. "Three Fools" A sign placed along the beach in September depicts Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro, Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe and Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Read More:

Public Officials Turn Private Beach Club Into Private Filming Location

NY1 - February 19, 2011 - By Amanda Farinacci

Last Weekend For Cedar Grove Beach Club?

A Walk In The Park - September 25, 2010

Last Weekend For Cedar Grove Beach Club?

The Bloomberg administration has refused to extend the Cedar Grove Beach Club license.  The administration has also refused to create and competitively bid out a seasonal bungalow concession.   The bungalows have been used for more than a half a century as part of a beach club instead, the city is insisting the bungalows be destroyed.  The Parks Department released a rendering this week (above) for its controversial Cedar Grove Beach Club site. The "plan" calls for destroying most of the 41 Summer bungalows and replacing them with natural vegetation like beach grass. It calls for building a playground and bathrooms, installing new entrances, and installing a concession. A lifeguard station will also be installed. The few bungalows that will be preserved will be converted for administrative uses.   

"It's a typical rope-a-dope by the Parks Department. They're going to get in there with their $1.8 million, knock the bungalows down and then walk away and we will never see the real plan implemented," Councilman Vincent Ignizio (R-South Shore), whose district houses Cedar Grove, told the Staten Island Advance.

For the most part, residents fear neglect. Just next door sits New Dorp Beach, whose bungalows were knocked down in 1962. Now owned by the city, the beach there is hideous. Condoms and drug refuse litter the shore. The foundation of an ancient hospital has never been removed.

The city has put aside $1.8 million to fix up Cedar Grove -- money, ironically, from the rent paid by Grovians. It's not enough, officials admit, to get through even one summer.

Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe has said they can not have have people living on parkland as the reason for getting rid of the seasonal concession however they have not said why people living in house boats on park property or allowing many non-park uses which occupy parkland twenty four hours - three hundred sixty five day a week is any different.

Meanwhile Parks Department officials have repeatedly attempted to mislead the public by indicating the seasonal bungalow concession somehow prevents the public from accessing the beach and that its new "plan" was not compatible with current uses including having "nice beaches."

"Now, you feel like you're trespassing on private property," Mr. Benepe said. 

A contention bungalow users say is absurd. 

On Tuesday Mayor Bloomberg was confronted by protesters on the steps City Hall to save the summer bungalows.  The Mayor said he had "no idea" about the issue and he would "take a look."  Mr. Bloomberg posed with one protester and held a sign which read, "PARKS MUST RECONSIDER. SAVE CEDAR GROVE."  - Geoffrey Croft

Longtime residents gather for a final picnic at Cedar Grove Beach Club over the weekend. Bungalow users must be out by this Thursday.  The Bloomberg administration has refused to competitively bid out the seasonal bungalow concession which have been used for more than a half a century as part of a beach club. (Photo: Michael McWeeney/Staten Island Advance) 

Staten Island

It's been quiet on the shores of Cedar Grove Beach Club these days. 

The kids are back at school and their parents at work, leaving only the oldest of the old-timers to reflect on nearly 100 years that suddenly seem like they've gone by so fast. 

"Sometimes I find myself standing and staring out the window and I can't imagine not summering here," said Marie Mulcahy, 67, who was sitting on her deck recently with her husband, Roger, 79, and sister-in-law, Eileen Lee, 82. A few feet away a lone fisherman cast a line and a sunbather sat under a yellow umbrella at the water's edge. 

"All we have is hope now." 

Over the past few weeks, the residents of the 41 beach colony bungalows have been taking photos off the walls and boxing away knickknacks collected through the years. Furniture has been donated to charity or given to friends. Pots and pans, clothing, small appliances and paintings were sold at a yard sale last Saturday. 

Despite the support of elected officials and a rally last Monday on the steps of City Hall, they may really be leaving for the very last time when their lease with the city expires on Thursday. 

The Parks Department is reclaiming the privately-leased stretch of land at the foot of Ebbits Street in New Dorp as part of its vision of incorporating its 78 acres into 10.6 miles of "continuous, open public beach" from the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to Crescent Beach in Great Kills. 

By Memorial Day 2011, the beach -- already free and open to anyone to use and maintained by its residents at no cost to the taxpayer -- is expected to be readied for swimming, according to a plan provided to the Advance by Parks. 

Read More: 

Last gasps at Staten Island's Cedar Grove Beach

Staten Island Advance -  September 26, 2010 - By Stephanie Slepian

Village pillage on SI's shore

New York Post - September 24, 2010 - Andrea Peyer 

Bloomberg's Knowledge Of Cedar Grove Beach Club Issue "No Idea"

A Walk In The Park -  September 21, 2010