Tortured Goat Found In Prospect Park - WARNING: Graphic Images!!

(above) A Decapitated Goat Head In Prospect Park was found two days after the body (below).
The head was lying on the sidewalk behind a tree opposite the parade grounds with two dishes nearby. Both plates were covered in wax, and also had pieces of a green leaf and other food scraps on them — raising the probability that the tortured animal was part of a Santeria offering. (Photos: Stephen Brown/Community Newspaper Group)




Brooklyn

Two days after the gutted carcass and the entrails of an unidentifiable decapitated animal turned up in the park, the head, covered in orange wax, was discovered roughly 100 feet away on Parkside Avenue on Thursday, according to the Brooklyn Paper.

“I was walking my dog, sending texts on my Blackberry, and then I saw it,” said Alex Gurevich, who also first spotted the carcass on two days before. “I thought, ‘Man, is that the head?’ It’s gross.”

The head was lying on the sidewalk behind a tree opposite the parade grounds with two dishes were nearby. Both plates were covered in wax, and also had pieces of a green leaf and other food scraps on them — raising the probability that the wretched creature was part of a Santeria offering.

Along with the wax, the goat head also had an ornamental dressing on its forehead. The goat did not appear to have died in a great deal of pain, as it still wore a crooked smile despite missing its legs and vital organs.

Park spokesman Eugene Patron said that he would dispatch an employee to do the grim work of gathering the goat remains. Before the goat’s head was discovered, Patron was not too concerned about the appearance of the animal’s carcass in Brooklyn’s spiritual heart.

“It’s illegal dumping,” he said. “That’s pretty much it.”

Read More:

You old goat! Head found near site of carcass in Prospect Park
The Brooklyn Paper - October 26, 2010 - By Stephen Brown

Oh, deer! Another dead animal shows up in Prospect Park
The Brooklyn Paper - October 20, 2010- By Stephen Brown

"Sheer Luck" Cromwell Center Didn't Collapse When It Was Open

The sub-structure that supported the Cromwell Center, the borough's largest and most widely used recreation facility, was in "seriously deteriorated condition" before it finally gave way and crumbled into Upper New York Bay last May. (Photo: Jan Somma-Hammel/Staten Island Advance)

Staten Island

It was sheer luck the Cromwell Center did not collapse when it was still open to the public, according to the Staten Island Advance.

The sub-structure that held the borough’s largest and most widely used recreation facility was in “seriously deteriorated condition” before it finally gave way and crumbled into Upper New York Bay on May 26, according to an internal Parks Department report obtained by the Advance through a Freedom of Information Law request.

The report also reveals the Tompkinsville building would likely require a costly and time-consuming rebuild, placing its future in serious doubt.

McLaren Engineering - a firm that specializes in marine structures and forensic examinations of building collapses – conducted the investigation for Parks on June 4, about a week after the Cromwell partially fell into the harbor.

Parks had closed the building about a month earlier to begin $4.4 million in repairs, including replacing the roof and three support piles and reinforcing the bulkhead. They had hoped the repairs would take a year.

However, the building may have been in worse shape than the city had suspected.

According to McLaren’s report, the timber piles that held the deck up were in “seriously deteriorated condition.” Many of them were incapable of bearing weight and others were missing altogether, the engineers found. Though numerous repairs were made to the piling over past three decades, “most have failed and are no longer functional.”

Read More:

Staten Island's Cromwell Center was a ticking time bomb
Staten Island Advance - October 25, 2010 - By Peter N. Spencer

Cromwell Recreation Center Collapses; No one hurt
A Walk In The Park - May 27, 2010

58-Year-old Homeless Man Killed In Lincoln Terrace Park

A Walk In The Park has learned that the victim was apparenly a homeless man and was shot at approx. 4:00am this morning.

Brooklyn

Police are investigating the fatal shooting of a man at a Brooklyn park early Monday.

Police responded to a 911 call of a male shot inside of Lincoln Terrace Park, between Buffalo Ave and Eastern Parkway, just before 4 a.m.

Upon arrival, police observed a 58-year-old man with a gunshot wound to his chest.

Read More:

Man fatally shot at Brooklyn park
Eyewitness News - October 25, 2010

DEC Commissioner Pete Grannis Fired Over Leaked Critical Memo

According the Albany Times Union, the governor’s top aide, Larry Schwartz, called DEC Commissioner Pete Grannis to demand his resignation over a DEC internal memo made public. The leaked memo highlighted consequences of further cuts as a result of Governor Paterson's proposed reductions to an all ready understaffed agency.

”Here I am being called on the carpet for doing what we were supposed to do, for being asked to tell the administration what the cuts they want meant,” Grannis said. “Apparently facts don’t sit well with this administration.”

Paterson spokesperson Morgan Hook confirmed to A Walk In The Park that Mr. Grannis was dismissed and that any other details as to why is a "personal matter and we are not going to get into why we made the decisions that we made. "

Mr. Hook said he expects a replacement to be officially named by the beginning of next week.

This is the second official to leave a top New York State environmental position recently, on September 23, Carol Ash, Commissioner of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP) resigned after being appointed in 2007 by former Gov. Eliot Spitzer. Her resignation is effective this month. – Geoffrey Croft

Albany

Pete Grannis, the commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Conservation since 2007, was fired Thursday by Gov. David Paterson. A state source said it was due to “poor performance and insubordination,” according to Capital Confidential.

A front-page story in Tuesday’s Times Union described one likely cause: the leak of a memo sent by DEC to the Budget Division that laid out in stark terms the possible consequences of the planned layoffs of more than 200 agency employees.


Alexander B. Grannis in his Albany office in April. He was fired on Thursday, after a memo about cuts in his staff was leaked. (Photo:Mike Groll/Associated Press)

The unsigned, undated memo warned that fewer polluted sites would be cleaned up, fewer regulators would be available to oversee the potential natural gas drilling boom in the Marcellus Shale, and stocking of game fish could halt.

In order to avoid cuts to programs that protect human health or address immediate environmental damage, the memo suggests the most logical places for deep cuts would be outdoor recreation and sports — including skiing, fishing, hunting, camping and hiking.

“Many of our programs are hanging by a thread. The public would be shocked to learn how thin we are in many areas,” the memo stated. “DEC is in the weakest position that it has been since it was created 40 years ago.”

Paterson spokesman Morgan Hook confirmed the dismissal but would not comment. DEC spokesman Yancey Roy also declined comment.

A long-serving former Assembly member from Manhattan, Grannis was appointed to the top job in DEC by former Gov. Eliot Spitzer in 2007. Grannis’ bio on the DEC’s website notes that he began his career in public service at the agency in the early 1970s, when he worked as a compliance counsel.

Update: In an interview Thursday night with TU environmental reporter Brian Nearing — who wrote the article on the leaked memo — Grannis said that Larry Schwartz, the governor’s top aide, called him about 4 p.m. Wednesday to demand his resignation over the memo becoming public.

”Here I am being called on the carpet for doing what we were supposed to do, for being asked to tell the administration what the cuts they want meant,” Grannis said. “Apparently facts don’t sit well with this administration.”

Read More:

DEC commissioner Pete Grannis fired (updated)
Capitol Confidential - October 21, 2010 - By Casey Seiler

DEC Internal Memo Warns Governor Against Further Cuts
A Walk In The Park - October 20, 2010

Community Garden Hearing - November 16th

On Tuesday, November 16, 2010, the City Council Committee on Parks & Recreation will hold an Oversight Hearing on Community Gardens at 1:00 p.m. in the 14th Floor Committee Room, 250 Broadway. (Across the street from City Hall)

This will be the first public hearing since the City adopted its controversial new community garden rules.

Interested parties are invited to attend the hearing and testify. If you plan to participate, officials suggest bringing twenty (20) copies double-sided of your written testimony. Copies are passed out to elected officials in attendance, a copy is also entered into the official record of the hearing. Non-written testimony is also encouraged.

Please also note that due to increased building security procedures, identification must be presented in the lobby & allot some extra time for entry through the building lobby. Allot extra time also for the large crowed expected and the small room available as a result of renovations to City Hall. - Geoffrey Croft

Internal DEC Memo Warns Governor Against Further Agency Cuts

"This is an administration that is openly disdainful of any and all things environmental," said Assemblyman Robert Sweeney, a Long Island Democrat who is chairman of the chamber's Environmental Conservation Committee.

ALBANY

An internal memo from the Department of Environmental Conservation paints a bleak picture of a gutted agency unable to accomplish its full mission if Gov. David Paterson achieves the job cuts he wants, according to Times Union.

If DEC cuts the 209 jobs demanded by the governor, the agency will have lost 22 percent of its staff since April 2008.

To reach this latest cut, DEC may have to turn over unspecified programs to either federal or local officials, according to a memo sent by the agency to the state Budget Division and obtained by the Times Union.

The unsigned, undated memo warns that fewer polluted sites would be cleaned up, fewer regulators would be available to oversee the potential natural gas drilling boom in the Marcellus Shale, and stocking of game fish could halt.

In order to avoid cuts to programs that protect human health or address immediate environmental damage, the memo suggests the most logical places for deep cuts would be outdoor recreation and sports -- including skiing, fishing, hunting, camping and hiking.

"Many of our programs are hanging by a thread. The public would be shocked to learn how thin we are in many areas," it states. "DEC is in the weakest position that it has been since it was created 40 years ago."

DEC spokesman Yancey Roy referred comment on the memo to the state Budget Division, which did not return a call. Roy said he was not aware of any pending layoff notices at DEC.

In April 2008, DEC had 3,775 staffers; Paterson's goal of 209 further job cuts, coming on the heels of 260 staffers who left last month under an early retirement program, would reduce that to 2,926 by December. Paterson has called for a total reduction of 2,000 additional state workers by the end of the year, although unions have threatened legal action to block that action.

"This is an administration that is openly disdainful of any and all things environmental," said Assemblyman Robert Sweeney, a Long Island Democrat who is chairman of the chamber's Environmental Conservation Committee. "This is penny-wise and pound foolish. We are paying a price for this, and already are unable to access federal funding for ourselves and not-for-profit agencies because DEC no longer has the people to do the paperwork. How dumb is that?"

Read More:

DEC warns governor against further cuts

Times Union - October 19, 2010 - By Brian Nearing

Riverside Park Greenway Clash

Riverside Park. Through the 72nd Street path to the Greenway is clearly marked on the city’s official bike map, which bears the Parks Department seal and Commissioner Adrian Benepe’s name - the Parks Department slapped a dismount sign on top of it. The path provides a crucial link to the Hudson River Greenway. The community board is currently looking for a less drastic solution to bike/pedestrian conflict.

Manhattan

The Hudson River Greenway is the busiest bike route in the city, with around 5,000 cyclists riding it during the peak 12-hour period each day. This June, the Parks Department abruptly put up dismount signs at the 72nd Street entrance to Riverside Park, interrupting a popular access route to a major corridor within Manhattan’s green transportation network, according to Streetsblog.org.

Cyclists, pedestrians, and dog walkers all use the 72nd Street entrance heavily, and while no resolution has yet been reached, many now see adding bike lanes at other greenway access points as the best way to reduce conflict. But even if those plans are pursued, cyclists won’t be able to ride this critical link without fear of getting fined unless the Parks Department changes the dismount policy.

At a meeting of the Manhattan Community Board 7 Parks Committee last night, CB members, the city, and local activists seemed to coalesce around a plan to improve bike access to the greenway at 79th Street, taking some pressure off 72nd and thereby mitigating the rationale for dismount signs. Both committee co-chairs saw the 79th Street plan as a partial solution worth pursuing and steered the conversation toward the more controversial question of what to do on the 72nd Street path.

Parks Department Greenway Coordinator John Mattera explained the 79th Street idea using an electricity analogy. “Bicycles follow the path of least resistance,” he said. If you want to reduce conflict on the 72nd Street path, he added, “the way to do that is to make a lightning rod out of 79th Street.” With fewer cyclists at 72nd, he said, the dismount policy could be swapped for something a little less heavy-handed. Mattera said that he’d spoken with the NYC DOT and that “as sure as anything can be at City DOT,” striping a new bike lane along 79th and leading into the park was part of their plan for 2011.

Read More:

At Riverside Park, Looking to More Bike Lanes to Soothe Bike/Ped Conflict

Streets Blog.org - October 19, 2010 - by Noah Kazis