Freshkills Park Tours

The former Fresh Kills landfill looks very different today than it did a decade ago. (SI Advance file photo/Irving Silverstein)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – From garbage dump to picturesque, recreational hub.

City planners have bold plans for Fresh Kills, labeled "one of the great regional parks of the 21st century."

Have trouble seeing that grand vision? Then set aside 90 minutes to see for yourself.

The Parks Department is again opening up the 2,200-acre West Shore site for guided tours between April and November, led by Urban Park Rangers and Freshkills Park staff, according to an Article in The Staten Island Advance.

Freshkills Park, located on Staten Island's West Shore, is opening its gates this spring for guided tours. The site, once the world's biggest landfill, is being transformed into one of the next great regional parks of the 21st century. Tours are available from April through November and are led by the Urban Park Rangers and a member of the Freshkills Park staff.

The largest park developed in New York City in more than 100 years, Freshkills Park will provide a wide range of recreational opportunities, ecological restoration and cultural and educational programming that promote environmental sustainability, and a renewed public concern for the human impact on the earth.

Tour guides will discuss the site's history, engineering and landscape design, including the abundant flora and fauna that are returning to the area. The tour will take visitors to the tops of two of the site's four large landfill mounds, offering expansive views of the site and views of downtown Manhattan and all four Staten Island bridges.

NYC Parks & Recreation rendering of Freshkills Park on Staten Island Park when completed.

Read More:

Tour Fresh Kills, envision Staten Island's 'park of the 21st century'

Staten Island Advance - March 2, 2010

You Are Cordially Invited to Tour Freshkills Park on Staten Island

Gothamist - March 2, 2010 - By John Del Signore

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