Randall's Island Water Park Suit Against City Dismissed - Again

A New York State Appellate Court judge threw out the Randall's Island Aquatic Leisure's latest breach of contract claim against the City for terminating its agreement to build a controversial $ 168 million dollar 26 acre water park and private beach club on the island.

The project finally began to collapse in 2007 when Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr. sent a letter to Mayor Bloomberg stating the developer had failed to meet the city’s deadline to arrange financing.

Opponents of the sole-source water park deal had argued the massive complex - which had grown to 26 acres - would have privatized public parkland during its 35 year proposed license and charged a prohibitive $ 37 per ticket for a facility located between Harlem and the South Bronx.

Randall's Island Aquatic Leisure poster. Randall's Island Opening in 2008.

Randall's Island

By Geoffrey Croft

On Tuesday an Appellate Court judge threw out Randall's Island Aquatic Leisure's breach of contract claim against the City for terminating its agreement to build a controversial 26 acre water park and private beach club on the island, A Walk In The Park has learned.

The court sided with the city ruling that plaintiffs did not comply with its obligation to obtain financing. Plaintiffs' had alleged oral promises to extend their financing deadlines were made. The court was not swayed. The decision stated that the record "demonstrates that all extensions granted by the City were in writing, and reserved to the City all of its rights under the agreement, including the right to terminate if plaintiffs failed to meet certain financing conditions. Obtaining loan commitments by a date certain was a contractual obligation. Plaintiffs failed to meet the condition, and the City terminated the agreement. Thus, the breach of contract claim was correctly dismissed as against it," the decision read.

On July 22, 2010 New York Supreme Court dismissed the case which Randall's Island Aquatic Leisure appealed.

Randall's Island Aquatic Leisure was hoping to build the largest indoor waterpark in the country, with seven-acre indoor space open year-round and an 18-acre outdoor facility. The Randall's Island Sports Foundation would have received a sizable fee from its operation estimated to be $1 million dollars annually.

In an embarrassing statement at the time, Warner Johnston, a spokesman for the Department of Parks and Recreation said, “In the event that the concessionaire is unable to fulfill its financial commitments under the agreement, the city will take appropriate steps to ensure that development of this major community improvement continues.”

When Randall's Island Aquatic Leisure failed to meet its first construction deadline, the Parks Department quietly granted Aquatic chief Herbert Ellis a seven-month extension which they also failed to meet.

Given the track record of some Ellis companies," the Daily News wrote in 2007, "city officials should listen for a change. After all, Aquatic's disclosure filings to the city neglected to mention a 1998 bankruptcy involving another publicly financed project of his upstate. And Steuben Place Partners, another Albany venture connected to Ellis, failed to repay a $1.5 million development loan to that city.

Juan Gonzalez pointed out that Herbert Ellis and his Aquatic Development Group, the parent group of Aquatic Leisure LLC, was for a time financed by Jerry Abbruzzese, an Albany businessman and friend of Republican Senate Speaker Joe Bruno.

Abbruzzese, a major contributor to state and national Republican leaders, lobbied the Giuliani administration to choose the Ellis group for the aquatic park back in 1999, former Parks Commissioner Henry Stern said, according to Gonzalez.

The project was cancelled before opponents had an opportunely to file a lawsuit.

Repeated requests seeking comment from the Plaintiffs' attorney John D. Hoggan, Jr. were not returned.

"We are pleased that the Court agreed that this lawsuit was without merit and should not proceed," the NYC Law Department said in a statement to A Walk In The Park.

RANDALL'S IS. AQUATIC LEISURE, LLC v. CITY OF NEW YORK

2012 NY Slip Op 00843

RANDALL'S ISLAND AQUATIC LEISURE, LLC, ET AL., Plaintiffs-Appellants,

v.

THE CITY OF NEW YORK, ET AL., Defendants-Respondents.

111146/09, 6747, 6748.

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, First Department.

Decided February 7, 2012.

Law Office of John Hoggan, PLLC, Albany (John D. Hoggan, Jr., of counsel), for appellants.

Michael A. Cardozo, Corporation Counsel, New York (Victoria Scalzo of counsel), for The City of New York, The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation and The New York City Economic Development Corporation, respondents.

Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, New York (Jonathan Bloom of counsel), for The Randall's Island Sports Foundation, respondent.

Before: Saxe, J.P., Friedman, Catterson, Freedman, Manzanet-Daniels, JJ.

---

Defendant New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC) and plaintiffs Aquatic Development Group, Inc. (ADG) and Recreation Development, Inc. (RDI) are not signatories to the "Waterpark Concession Agreement" between plaintiff Randall's Island Aquatic Leisure, LLC (RIAL) and the City (through the Department of Parks and Recreation), which governs this dispute. Thus, ADG and RDI are not proper plaintiffs, and EDC is not a proper defendant, which alone is a sufficient ground on which to dismiss the complaint as against it. There can be no breach of contract claim against a non-signatory to the contract (Nuevo El Barrio Rehabilitación de Vivienda y Economía, Inc. v Moreight Realty Corp., 87 A.D.3d 465, 467 [2011]). There can be no claim of breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing without a contract (American-European Art Assoc. v Trend Galleries, 227 A.D.2d 170, 171 [1996]). And there can be no quasi-contract claim against a third-party non-signatory to a contract that covers the subject matter of the claim (Bellino Schwartz Padob Adv. v Solaris Mktg. Group, 222 A.D.2d 313, 313 [1995]).

The breach of contract claim against the City for terminating the agreement to build a recreation center fails because plaintiffs did not comply with the obligation to obtain financing. Plaintiffs' allegation of a course of conduct and oral promises extending their financing deadlines is belied by the record, which demonstrates that all extensions granted by the City were in writing, and reserved to the City all of its rights under the agreement, including the right to terminate if plaintiffs failed to meet certain financing conditions. Obtaining loan commitments by a date certain was a contractual obligation. Plaintiffs failed to meet the condition, and the City terminated the agreement. Thus, the breach of contract claim was correctly dismissed as against it (see Jericho Group, Ltd. v Midtown Dev., L.P., 32 A.D.3d 294, 298 [2006]). The good faith and fair dealing claim fails because the City's termination of the agreement was consistent with the agreement's express terms (Phoenix Capital Invs. LLC v Ellington Mgt. Group, L.L.C., 51 A.D.3d 549, 550 [2008]). The promissory estoppel claims fail because the statement that "possible loans" were being "considered" is not an allegation of clear and unambiguous promises upon which plaintiffs could reasonably have relied (see New York City Health & Hosps. Corp. v St. Barnabas Hosp., 10 A.D.3d 489, 491 [2004]). The estoppel claims fail for the additional reason that they do not allege "dut[ies] independent of the agreement" (see Celle v Barclays Bank P.L.C., 48 A.D.3d 301, 303 [2008]).

We have considered plaintiffs' remaining arguments and find them unavailing.

THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER OF THE SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE DIVISION, FIRST DEPARTMENT.

http://www.leagle.com/xmlResult.aspx?xmldoc=In%20NYCO%2020120207307.xml&docbase=CSLWAR3-2007-CURR

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City Gives Go-Ahead To Proposed Water Park On Randall's Island

NY1 News - January 12, 2006

Sportime's Randall's Island Tennis Expansion Opposition Heat Up

Public Parks Are Not For Private Clubs. Environmental justice activists and residents of East Harlem and the South Bronx were out in force on Monday night protesting SPORTIME's proposed private tennis club expansion on Randall's Island. Former tennis star McEnroe was being honored by The Nation magazine at a gala event held at the Metropolitan Pavilion hosted by Robert Redford and Barbara Streisand and many notable progressives. (Photo:Indymedia)

Approximately 30 opponents wore tennis gear and carried banners and signs and handed out flyers to guests. The $19 million, 160,000 square feet, 20 court SPORTIME Randall's Island facility built last year avoided going through ULURP whereby bypassing community planning and consoltation.

John McEnroe teamed up with Claude Okin, the managing partner of Sportive New York to create the John McEnroe tennis academy on Randall's Island. The academy prices range from $3,600 to $4,800 for 34 weeks of two-hour lessons. McEnroe's brother Mark is the general manager of the $ 19 million dollar facility.

Sportime Randall's Island charges between $72 to $105 per hour for indoor courts, on top of fees of $500-750 to join, in addition to monthly dues as high as $ 286 for a family. (They have more than 2,000 members) Tennis lessons run as high as $ 5,950 for one hour lessons for 34 weeks. One camp charges $ 500 a day for non-members (transportation and food is extra).

Ten courts are available for NYC Park Department tennis permit holders during the non-Winter months.

The tennis center generated $ 9 million dollars in revenue last year alone according to Sportime's Ben Schlansky.

Critics charge that not only was the public not consulted with in the building of the original facility but since then residents from East Harlem and South Bronx have not benefited enough from the massive commercial facility built on public parkland.

At a lively Community Board 11 Parks and Recreation Committee meeting last night on the proposed tennis center expansion, a Sportime NY spokesperson revealed that only 370 hours of free instructional time were given to kids in 2010 and 650 hours in 2011. (The facility is open 365 day a year, 16 hours a day) They could not break down how many of those hours were associated with Randall's Sport Foundation related programs. They also did not provide a breakdown of what neighborhoods those kids live.

The Sportime NY representative also said that just 20 scholarships were given out in 2010 and 30 in 2011. He did not provide any information on what communities those that recieved them lived. Another point of contention was that the scholarships were soley merit based - on already existing skill - instead of exposing youth to the game.

The $ 6 - 7 million, 75,000 Sq. Ft. proposed expansion includes the building of 9 new courts, three bubbles aprox. 45 - 52 feet high, in a parking lot across the street from the existing facility. Unlike the original $ 19 million project this would go through ULURP.

The project's architect Ricardo Zurita, presented along with Aimee Boden, Park Administrator and Randall's Island Sports Foundation Executive Director, and Ben Schlansky, of Sportstime NY.

The applicants hope to certify the project with City Planning and begin ULURP in spring - 2013.

The general consensus from the public at the meeting was that the proposed expansion project should be withdrawn and the existing issues regarding the built facility be resolved.

Community Board 11's City Properties & Land Use Committee will hear the proposal on Monday, December 12th.

7:00pm - 8:00pm

at the Bonifacio Senior Center, 7 East 116th Street

And:

CB 11 Full Board Monthly Meeting
December 20th- 6:30pm at the Museum of the City of New York, 1220 5th Ave (103rd St.)

- Geoffrey Croft

Prices for the John McEnroe tennis academy on Randall's Island range from $3,600 to $4,800 for 34 weeks of two-hour lessons. The famed tennis player (above) with a student, teamed with up Claude Okin, the managing partner of Sportime New York to create the tennis academy. (Photo: Ruth Fremson/The New York Times)

Manhattan

Environmental activists from East Harlem, the Bronx and other parts of the city took to the streets to raise awareness about ongoing attempted land grabs and alienation of public parkland on Randall’s Island, according to Indymedia.

The Nation Magazine's favorite tennis champ, John McEnroe, has lent his name to Sportime Corporation, which in 2010 illegally (without land use review) acquired a large portion of public park land that had been used by East Harlem and South Bronx residents for over 50 years. McEnroe's Sportime Tennis Center now charges thousands of dollars to be a member of the private tennis club.

The Nation writer Eric Alterman speaks with Randall's Island Sports Foundation head Aimee Boden. (Photo:Indymedia)

McEnroe was honored by The Nation Magazine on Monday December 5th 2011 at the Metropolitan Pavilion in Manhattan. Approximately 30 opponents of the land grab wore tennis gear and carried banners and signs in front of the gala affair, which was hosted by Robert Redford and Barbara Streisand and many notable progressives. They resisted efforts by off duty police officer security to remove them from the front of the gala affair, with tickets at a minimum of $500 per seat. Later, when the NY Police were called, they asked if those peacefully assembled had a “permit” and sought to shunt them away from the star studded guests arrival. Knowing their 1st Amendment rights, advocates maintained their position with loud chants. No one from The Nation came out to support their right to assemble or seek to reign in the security seeking to intimidate everyone out front.

Activists handed out flyers and engaged arriving guests such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson, NYC Comptroller John Liu, NYC Public Advocate Bill deBlasio, State Senator Liz Krueger, former NYC Public Advocate Mark Green, and Nation writers Eric Alterman and Jeremy Scahill to inform them how John McEnroe steals park land from Bronx and East Harlem youth! They know now and we can monitor their position on the issue. Aimee Boide, Executive Director of Randall’s Island Sports Foundation, in addition to her six figure salary public position with the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, was in attendance and well aware of the controversy and opposition to the project. Her attempts to stifle the advocates clear and coherent explanation of the issue to hundreds of attendees were met with laughter. When asked why they were honoring such a controversial figure, The Nation publisher emeritus Victor Navasky stated that he was unaware of this McEnroe scheme, which could be headed for Court. Will he assign a follow-up article by The Nation sportswriter Dave Zirin?

Sportime corporation served a $19 million PRIVATE sport's facility on Randall's Island. The local community, from South Bronx and East Harlem especially, got aced. The expansion proposal would seek to alienate more parkland with 9 tennis courts added to the 20 they already rent out and profit from. John McEnroe franchises his name to this unethical land grab and our progressive friends at The Nation invited him as an honored guest.

This alienation skipped any public process. McEnroe’s brother, Patrick, is a head of Sportime Corp. John sold his name on the 160,000 sq. ft., $19 million private tennis Club on Randall’s Island. It never went though the Alienation of Parkland legislative process, let alone the less onerous Uniform Land Use Review Procedure
(ULURP) required for local development. No one asked the community for ideas on how to use our land. Randall’s Island Sports Foundation (RISF) supported it and could get over $1 million a year or so to allow more. They keep changing plans every month depending on where they think they can make more money, rather than include the local stakeholders in a sincere and meaningful decision making process.

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio is handed a flyer as he enters the event on Monday night. Rev. Jesse Jackson, NYC Comptroller John Liu, State Senator Liz Krueger, former NYC Public Advocate Mark Green were also in attedence.

(Photo:Indymedia)

Neighborhood advocates highlighted the exorbitant costs to use the private facilities. $72 to $105 per hour for courts, on top of fees of $500-750 to join, in addition to monthly dues as high as $ 286 for a family. Tennis lessons run as high as $ 5,950 for one hour for 34 weeks. There are even "members only" locker rooms with steam baths & massage therapy. Nice perks, but is this a public park people pondered?

Read More:

Tennis pro John McEnroe Confronted for Privatizing Randall's Island

Indymedia - December 7, 2011 - By Jen Rivera

Controversial Randall's Island Tennis Concession Looking to Expand

A Walk In The Park - November 9, 2011 - By Geoffrey Croft

Private Park Salaries Soar

Manhattan

Maybe money grows on trees in Central Park.

Douglas Blonsky, the head of the Central Park Conservancy, got a 20 percent raise, bringing his salary to $433,940, according to the nonprofit's just-released tax filings for 2009-10, according to the New York Post.

Several other directors also raked in the green.

* Debbie Landau, the head of the Madison Square Park Conservancy, got a $15,000 raise in 2009, plus a bonus of $20,000, bringing her salary to $200,000 during a year in which the conservancy's revenue declined by $246,715.

* Aimee Boden, the head of the Randalls Island Sports Foundation, got a 6 percent hike from $166,274 to $176,200 -- including a $15,000 bonus -- in 2009. The city pays $126,609 of her salary and the nonprofit pays the rest.

Bryant Park Corp. Director Daniel Biederman's salary for the year ending June 30, 2008, was $220,027, up from $210,374 a year earlier. He also earned $220,027 as head of the 34th Street Partnership.

The directors of some groups earn more than Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, whose salary is $205,180.

"Blonsky oversees 843 acres. Our parks commissioner oversees 29,000 acres. It doesn't make sense," said Geoffrey Croft, president of NYC Park Advocates, a watchdog group.

The bulk of Blonsky's raise of $73,766 came from a $69,400 payment for accumulated vacation time, said Kari Wethington, a spokeswoman for the conservancy.

The Madison Square Conservancy refused to comment on Landau's raise. The group also employed Landau's sister, Maggi, with Landau paying her $125,000, plus a $12,500 bonus in 2009. She has since left.

The city Parks Department in 2009 began paying the bulk of Boden's salary for running Randalls Island, the location of Icahn Stadium and dozens of athletic fields. The Parks Department said it upped her salary to be more in line with her work.

A spokesman for Bryant Park Corp. and the 34th Street Partnership, a Business Improvement District, said the boards of both groups believe Biederman's "salary is justified given the renaissance that both districts have undergone."

Read More:

Parks turn 'greener' for exec $

New York Post - February 20, 2011 - By Isabel Vincent and Melissa Klein

High Line Spending Exposed

A Walk In The Park - August 3, 2009

Randall's Island Access Obstacles Continue

Bronx - Manhattan 

BUILD IT and they will come. But will they come from the Bronx?

The city unveiled 62 new and renovated athletic fields on Randalls Island last month, but there's no easy route there from the Bronx - at least not yet.

Officials say a new foot bridge and shuttle bus, plus outreach to Bronx schools, could make the island a boogie-down playground.

"Randalls Island is used more by Manhattan folks," said Eric Peterson, deputy administrator for the 273-acre park. "But people in the Bronx should know that Randalls Island is . . . for everyone."

The city Parks Department spent $130 million to rehab the island park, adding new baseball, soccer and cricket fields - and sparking controversy.

In 2008 and last year, the state Supreme Court struck down a deal that would have given 20 private schools special field access for $2.2 million a year.

Private and public schools and community groups now use the park for free, including 18 schools and 14 groups from the Bronx.

Casita Maria summer campers take free lessons through the Randalls Island Sports Foundation.

"Our kids do . . . horseback riding, tennis, minigolf, rugby," said Marta Rivera, program director for the Longwood camp.

But getting to the island from the Bronx - as well as Manhattan - can be tough. A pedestrian ramp off the Triborough Bridge is safe but daunting, said Peterson, because it runs between Randalls and a desolate South Bronx warehouse district.

"Access to Randalls Island is a huge problem, because the public doesn't know how to get there," said Geoffrey Croft of NYC Parks Advocates. "The average kid from the Bronx doesn't walk over to play baseball, which is sad because the Bronx is the closest borough to the island."

But Peterson says a new footbridge at E. 132nd St.  could be the missing link. It would cross the Bronx Kill below the Hell Gate railroad trestle and should be ready by mid-2012, according to the city Economic Development Corp.

Other plans include shuttle service and outreach to schools.

Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito (D-Manhattan/Bronx), Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. have earmarked $285,000 for shuttle service.

A bus service could run from Randalls Island from Harlem's 125th St. subway station or from schools in Manhattan and the Bronx. The Public School Athletic League already buses students from Harlem on game days.

The Parks Department will promote Randalls among South Bronx schools this fall. It focused on East Harlem last year, said Peterson.

Bronx Charter School for Excellence in Parkchester buses students to Randalls Island.

"Only the [private] schools know," said Principal Charlene Reid. "Public schools need to take advantage of it. It's green space. . . . it's right there."

OBSTACLE COURSE FOR FIELDS TRIP

New York Daily News - August 17, 2010 - By Daniel Beekman

Key Figure in Randall's Island Water Park Undoes Joe Bruno

Aquatic Development Group water park advertisement. The proposed water park and private beach club on Randall's Island would have taken away 12 ballfields  and 26 acres of public parkland.

By Jennifer Rivera

The conviction of former NY State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno of two felony-fraud charges, has thrown, for now, a much-needed spotlight on the price of doing business in New York State. This criminal culture — with its lack of accountability and transparency — has resulted in the misuse of our public parkland for commercial and political gain.

For 14 years, Mr. Bruno was one of Albany's "three men in-a-room," presiding over a government routinely described as the most dysfunctional in the country. His conviction resulted from consulting deals with former associate Jared Abbruzzese, who testified under immunity.

According to the New York Times, the jury was "troubled by evidence concerning Mr. Bruno’s relationship with Jared E. Abbruzzese, an Albany-area entrepreneur who sought the Senate leader’s help for an array of ventures, from a nanotechnology company seeking state money to telecommunications firms seeking investment capital."

Mr. Abbruzzese became an investor in Aquatic Development Group (ADG) after rescuing it from bankruptcy in the mid-1990s. Soon afterward ADG was awarded the biggest job in its history, a sole-source, no-bid contract from the administration of New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani to develop a private beach club and water-park on Randall's Island.

The water park proposal was widely criticized for taking 26 acres of public parkland from two of the most impoverished neighborhoods in the country, the South Bronx and East Harlem. A water park plan was hatched by the Randall's Island Sports Foundation (RISF), which in 2001 signed a funding scheme agreement with the city that enabled the public/private partnership to divert concession funds generated on the island to itself, funds that would normally go into the city's general fund.

The agreement between the city and ADG provided the company with a 35-year lease on the park property, according to the New York Times.  Aquatic Development guaranteed the city a base payment of $1 million annually, and that payment could climb as high as $3 million or $4 million a year, depending on attendance figures. The money would supposedly be used to improve other parkland on Randall's Island.

The city had originally sought bids in 1999 for a relatively small 12-acre, $40 million water park that would operate during summer only — less than half the size and one-quarter the cost of the current plan. Under the Bloomberg administration the plan ballooned to $215 million and would have swallowed up 26 acres of public parkland. (Until his mayoral run, Bloomberg was a RISF board member. He is also a long-time contributor.)

Park advocates were concerned about the city's leasing of public land to a private company to subsidize the rest of the island's parkland, which they said had been inadequately cared for by the city. They were also critical that the city could allow this private, commercial attraction to go forward without the state alienating the parkland first. But the city's Parks Department claimed the plan served a “park use” and “no alienation is required,” spokesman Warner Johnston told Metro New York. “This contract is terminable at will by us.” (A lawsuit was being prepared to challenge it.) 

The ability to revoke this park concession "at will" had been OK'd by state courts as a way to avoid alienating parkland. But Geoffrey Croft, president of the non-profit NYC Park Advocates, saw a terrible precedent in the offing. "This deal is based solely on the city refusing to allocate proper resources to maintain the park," Croft told the New York Times. "Selling off public parkland to make up for these appalling shortfalls is certainly not the answer."

In 1999 and 2000 — around the time ADC was being chosen for the water park — Abbruzzese and members of his family contributed $6,000 to Giuliani's aborted U.S. Senate campaign and $30,000 to the state Republican Party. Since 2000, Abbruzzese, his family and ADG President Herb Ellis have reportedly contributed more than $100,000 to various campaign committees, including Friends of Giuliani and Solutions America, entities controlled by the former Mayor.

Abbruzzese, already a major contributor to state and national Republican leaders, lobbied the Giuliani administration to choose ADG, the parent group of Aquatic Leisure LLC, for the aquatic park back in 1999, former Parks Commissioner Henry Stern said, according to the Daily News. 

In 1999 Henry Stern was head of the Parks Department when the controversial proposal for Randall's Island was first floated.  Two years later, ADG was chosen without going through a formal bid process, land-use reviews or state alienation approval. Stern recently said he had doubts that such a facility could succeed financially. "But Jerry Abbruzzese and his friends in Albany had a plan and it sounded good," Stern recalled.

Community groups repeatedly called on elected officials as well as Stern and his successor, Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, to terminate the land grab and no-bid contract. Harry Bubbins, who opposed the city’s plan to turn parkland over to developers, has led bike tours, nature walks and canoe trips to Randall's Island for more than 10 years. He started a letter-writing campaign to public officials.

"How much more damaging information do we have to piece together before they sink this no bid deal that would take away 26 acres of park land for the public?" Harry Bubbins, a local resident and passionate protector of parks and the environment, told Metro in 2006.

The proposed plan would have destroyed heavily used ballfields and picnic areas that are major destinations for people who live in the surrounding communities, especially on the weekends. Admission to the water park would have cost $37 for adults and $30 for children.

"They say they're helping us by putting it here, but they're really hurting us," East Harlem resident Ruisdael Cintron, 21, told the NY Times. "How many people in this neighborhood can go and say, 'I need to cool off,' and pay $30, $35? It's not going to happen."

East Harlem resident Marina Ortiz wrote in the NY Latino Journal, “Clearly, we cannot support a Water Park on Randall’s Island. We should oppose what Comptroller Thompson called 'a process that is flawed and inconsistent with well-established principles of public bidding.' This plan defies sound environmental and fiscal logic. While it may generate millions of dollars each year for its developers and investors, it will have little benefit to the East Harlem community. Most importantly, we should not bargain with the little public parkland we have left without due process.”

"They’re taking public parkland away from two of the poorest communities in New York City and replacing it with a commercial venture that the vast majority of residents won’t be able to use,” Geoffrey Croft, president of the nonprofit NYC Park Advocates told Metro in 2006. “It’s terrible public policy to deny access to public space to make something exclusive for rich, white people.”

Despite vehement community opposition, the RISF and the Bloomberg Administration continued to push the inappropriate plan.

“Ideally, we’d like a groundbreaking before the summer of 2006,” said parks department spokeswoman Dana Rubenstein. "The city hopes to open the park by Memorial Day 2007.”

That never happened.

In October 2006, just weeks before the city’s Industrial Development Agency was set to issue $215 million in bonds for the project, the water park hit a snag. According to a Metro story, ADG President Herb Ellis was also a partner in another business venture that couldn’t repay a loan to the Albany Industrial Development Agency, which had borrowed the money from the federal government.

Instead of securing funds through the New York City Industrial Development Agency, ADG suddenly had to scramble to find investors. With ADG unable to secure the financing, the Parks Department quietly extended the financing deadline for Mr. Abbruzzese's group on January 4, 2007. By September the group had missed its deadline twice and was asking for yet another extension. On September 21, the city finally terminated the contract.

"I would like to thank Mayor Bloomberg for terminating this contract and initiating a new process to best meet the needs of the community," City Comptroller William Thompson said. "Any development of Randall's Island should be through a transparent process and involve all stakeholders."

Mr. Thompson had maintained that the development deal with Aquatic Development Group was illegal because it had not been subject to competitive bids once the plan grew from a 12-acre, summer-only park in 1999 to a 26-acre, year-round park.

Community and open space advocates had spent hundreds of hours of time and effort — and thousands of dollars — but they had helped to stop this debacle;  26 acres of public parkland was prevented from being grabbed for a commercial purpose. Their remaining questions are plentiful, however: Why why did it take so long? Why were those involved allowed continue to push this  destructive project? Why was the community allowed to be left out of the planning and consultation? Where were our elected officials?

Senator Bruno and Jared Abbruzzesse are just a small part of a culture of corruption that needs to be rooted out at every level of our government, especially in the private/public "partnerships" whose dealings have largely escaped transparency and accountability. While being allowed to have control over more and more of our public spaces, these groups are collecting millions of dollars in taxpayer funds. This system rewards the cronies of elected officials who are unwilling to protect our parks.

The city, state and federal government have contributed literally hundreds of millions of dollars over the last few years to projects on Randall's Island, including the largest park reconstruction job in the city's recent history. The RISF also entered into a deal which would allow 20 of Manhattan's wealthiest schools exclusive afternoon access to fields on the Island in exchange for a fee. (This agreement is currently the subject of litigation) The vast majority of these expenditures and plans have escaped public scrutiny.

This is a cautionary tale. The abuse of public lands will continue until our public officials begin to protect our public parkland.

Read More:

Bruno, Former State Leader, Guilty of Corruption

New York Times -  December 7, 2009 - By Nicholos Confessore & Danny Hakim

Corrupt Bruno gets convicted

New York Post - December 8, 2009 - By Brendan Scott

Randall's Island Water Park - Background:

With Financing in Doubt, City Cancels Plans for Randalls Island Water Park

New York Times - September 22, 2007 - By Timothy Williams

Water park boondoggle builder misses deadline

New York Daily News - September 21, 2007 - By Juan Gonzalez

Comtroller: Park Dept. broke law by extending park deadline

New York Daily News  September 18, 2007 - By Kirsten Danis

 

Comptroller wants to sink water park

Metro NY - September 18, 2007 - By Patrick Arden

Randall’s Island water park washed up?

City bonds won’t be used to fund project; developer has no other cash on tap

Metro New York - October 20, 2006 -  by Patrick Arden

Randalls Island Water Park Set for Final Approval Vote

New York Times -  April 10, 2006

Randall's Island Water Park Plans Waterlogged

gothamist - September 21, 2007 

Activists try to drum up water park foes

Metro New York-  March 1, 2006 - By Amy Zimmer

Randall's Island Development Fuled by Giuliani Donors

A strikingly inappropriate 26 acre development is being pushed to alienate public park land...

IndyMedia .org - February 24, 2006