Whitney Woods In Staten Island Saved From Development

The city acquired the 1.5-acre wooded parcel on May 2nd and it will be incorperated into the Staten Island Bluebelt. Up to 70 residential units were planned for the site. Visitors can access Whitney Woods in the Grasmere section of the Island from dead-end Whitney Avenue, off Clove Road, above, and from the dead-end of Whitney Avenue at its intersection with Parkinson Avenue. (Photo: Virginia Sherry/ Staten Island Advance)

Staten Island

An environmental celebration will take place on Saturday at 11 a.m. with Borough President James Molinaro, City Councilman James Oddo (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn), and officials from the city Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) gathering alongside neighborhood residents to erect a Bluebelt sign in Whitney Woods, at the corner of Parkinson and Whitney avenue, according to the Staten Island Advance.

The city acquired the 1.5-acre wooded parcel on May 2, in the successful culmination of a campaign to save the environmentally sensitive land from construction of up to 70 residential units. The move preserves the property as forever-wild open space, part of the Richmond Creek watershed that includes Grasmere, Old Town, Arrochar, and South Beach.

“We have seen too many of our green spaces on Staten Island pillaged by inappropriate development,” said Oddo. “That is why this victory is so sweet.

“We are literally preventing the potential development of 70 housing units in a pristine green space and protecting the local community by ensuring that Whitney Woods acts as a stormwater drainage and management area,” he added.

“The preservation of Whitney Woods is good news for the Bluebelt and good news for Staten Island,” said Molinaro, noting that Staten Island has many locations where development has increased flooding. “We acquired Whitney Woods, preserved the wetlands, and helped make the neighborhood much more secure from flooding,” he said.

The land was purchased for $2.735 million. Oddo contributed $1.45 million from his City Council budget, Molinaro another $985,000 from his borough president budget, and DEP kicked in $300,000.

The property is generally bounded by the bed of unbuilt Whitney Avenue from Parkinson to Woodlawn avenues, and the bed of unbuilt Woodlawn Avenue from Whitney to Leslies avenues, as well as privately owned lots bounded by Marie Street and Woodlawn and Leslie Avenues.

Visitors can easily access Whitney Woods from dead-end Whitney Avenue, off Clove Road , and from the dead-end of Whitney Avenue at the corner of Parkinson Avenue.

Read More:

Housing development denied for Staten Island neighborhood

Staten Island Advance - May 9, 2012 - By Virginia N. Sherry

Parks Department Barricades Public Road On Staten Island, Enraging Borough President Yet Again

Molinaro called Parks "arrogant" and "condescending" and said that the agency failed to consult local officials before making the incursion.

"It’s a fight," Molinaro said. "You have to watch everything they do. I’ve had it up to here with them."

Barrier placed by Parks Department to delineate footpath to Seaside Nature Park has upset residents and Borough President James Molinaro. (Photo: Staten Island Advance/Jan Somma-Hammel)

Staten Island

Staten Island officials have a simple solution to a traffic problem that would ease congestion on Hylan Boulevard and help emergency vehicles and Great Kills residents better and more safely navigate the neighborhood.

But they say that the Parks Department has not only been uncooperative in making it happen, but has literally -- and illegally -- built roadblocks that stand in the way, according to the Staten Island Advance.

However, Parks doesn’t see it that way.

The battlefield in the latest skirmish between the Island and the Parks Department is Tennyson Drive.

Borough President James P. Molinaro and City Councilman Vincent Ignizio (R-South Shore) said that Parks has illegally paved and built a barrier in the roadway on Tennyson near Seaside Nature Park, a city playground on the Cleveland Avenue side of the thoroughfare.

Molinaro, who said he plans to take Parks to court over the incursion, said that the right of way where the incursion occurred is actually owned by a builder with a project under way in the area who is committed to building out the roadway.

Molinaro called Parks "arrogant" and "condescending" and said that the agency failed to consult local officials before making the incursion.

"It’s a fight," Molinaro said. "You have to watch everything they do. I’ve had it up to here with them."

Without addressing the legality of the incursion, a Parks spokesman said the agency’s design does not prevent the developer from building out the road.

The agency said Parks paved "a small section" of Tennyson because a pathway was needed to provide access to Seaside Nature Park. Prior to this, Parks said, there was no access to the park from Cleveland.

The agency said it is working on a "memorandum of understanding" with the developer in order to maintain the path.

The lawmakers also want an unbuilt, city-owned portion of Tennyson Drive near the planned Crescent Beach Park to be paved.

But they told the Advance that Parks wants to hold on to the roadbed, between Robinson and Armstrong avenues, for possible use as a pedestrian pathway or bike lane for the future park.

Tennyson runs parallel to Hylan Boulevard and having it fully open would help motorists in the neighborhood and would also remove traffic from congested Hylan, Molinaro and Ignizio said.

They said having that chunk of the road closed off endangers public safety by making it more difficult for firetrucks and ambulances to make their way into the neighborhood from Hylan because of a dearth of left-turn lanes.

Molinaro said Parks’ action amounted to an act of "arrogance" and "defiance" and that the agency acted without consulting local officials.

"To do that to me, knowing what I need ... " Molinaro said of his desire to build out more of the road.

Borough Engineer Michael Nagy said that there is more than enough room in the 80-foot streetbed to build a standard 60-foot road and leave space for bikers or pedestrians who want to use the park.

"We’re being stopped by our own colleagues in government," said City Councilman Vincent Ignizio (R-South Shore). "We can’t do this with one hand tied behind our backs."

The agency said it is "not building anything" to preclude the road from being further developed. A planned pedestrian walkway for the beach, Parks said, is in the park confines and would not interfere with any development of the road that is adjacent to the park.

Molinaro, who also battled Parks over the opening of roads in the new city park in the former Fresh Kills landfill and over the building of Bloomingdale Park, is especially angered because his office has allocated more than $60 million to the agency since 2002.

"I’m not an enemy," he said. "I’ve given more money for parks than the other four borough presidents combined."

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NYC Parks barricades public road on Staten Island, enraging borough president yet again

Staten Island Advance - April 07, 2011 - By Tom Wrobleski

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.

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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

NYCLU Sues City Over Retaliatory Arrest of Environmentalist and James Molinaro Critic

NYCLU Sues New York City over Retaliatory Arrest of Critic of Staten Island Borough President

December 16, 2009 —  The New York Civil Liberties Union today filed a federal lawsuit against New York City and two police officers on behalf of a local environmental advocate who was targeted by police and unlawfully arrested last summer in retaliation for publicly criticizing Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro’s economic development policies and opposing his reelection.

Edward Kerry Sullivan, a longtime Staten Island resident, is executive director of the Natural Resources Protective Association (NRPA), a non-profit environmental advocacy organization that has opposed Molinaro’s efforts to commercially develop the Stapleton Homeport, an abandoned naval base on Staten Island’s North Shore that had been slated to become a public park.

In early August, Sullivan mailed letters to numerous public officials about the Homeport controversy and published a prominent letter in the Staten Island Advance calling on residents to express their dissatisfaction over the issue when they vote. Several days later, Sullivan was unlawfully arrested and handcuffed outside his home on Aug. 11 by two NYPD officers, allegedly for writing “The Jerk” on the corner of an illegally posted Molinaro campaign sign.

The officers who arrested him said they had been following Sullivan for several days and that he had made “enemies upstairs.” They also attempted to delay his original court date for more than three months – until after the November 3 election. The District Attorney’s Office dropped the charges.

“The right to criticize the government is one of our most important constitutional guarantees,” said NYCLU Associate Legal Director Christopher Dunn, who is lead counsel on the case. “It is intolerable for elected officials to recruit the police to intimidate and silence their critics.”

The lawsuit was filed on Sullivan’s behalf in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. It names the City of New York and the two police officers who arrested Sullivan as defendants. It maintains that defendants violated Sullivan’s rights under the First, Fourth and Fourteenth amendments; the New York State Constitution; and New York common law.

“It is outrageous that NYPD officers took a four-day break from protecting public safety to track and unlawfully arrest someone for opposing the borough president’s development policies,” said NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman. “One expects this sort of thing under a totalitarian regime, not a constitutional democracy.”

The arrest left Sullivan, who is presently waiting for a liver transplant, physically exhausted. Fearing further reprisals, Sullivan refrained from criticizing Molinaro despite the 2009 election and Stapleton Homeport’s sale to a New Jersey developer.

In addition to Dunn, the case is being worked on by Adam Hunt, Matthew Gorman, and Stephen Knoepfler, law students enrolled in New York University School of Law’s Civil Rights Clinic.

Source: NYCLU

Read More  - (Including Mr. Sullivan's Letter to the Editor and  the Complaint)

NYCLU Sues New York City over Retaliatory Arrest of Critic of Staten Island Borough President

NYCLU  -Press Release - December 16, 2009

SI urban scrawl suit

New York Post - December 17, 2009 - By Janon Fisher