Community Board 8 Rejects Year Round Tennis Concession

Community Board  8 on the Upper East Side nearly unanimously rejected a proposal Wednesday night that would have allowed a private tennis club from operating year-round on public park land. Currently the tennis concession charges up to $ 180 per hour on  the Queensboro Oval softball field under the 59th Street bridge which operates in the park up to eight months of the year. The board voted 35 to 2, with two abstentions.  The vote came five months after the concessionaire had already signed a contract which is a strong point of contention because opponents of the plan charge they had not been properly notified of the proposal. A Walk In The Park has learned however that the contract has not yet been registered by the Comptroller's office.

The night saw many passionate appeals on behalf of park users, families and park advocates. Lawsuits were also mentioned numerous times by opponents of the plan if the Parks Department did not cancel the contract. Manhattan Parks Commissioner William Castro has publicly stated on several occasions that the city would listen to the community in making its determination. Meanwhile permits have not yet begun to be issued for the outdoor softball season which begins shortly  –  Geoffrey Croft 

MANHATTAN

It was a small crowd of people making a potentially giant decision whether to allow an expanded season at Sutton East, a tennis club under a bubble beneath the Queensborough Bridge on the far East Side, according to NY 1.

"These are the facts -- 2,000 people play tennis at the Queensboro Oval every week, 17 hours a day in a location that's convenient, safe and open rain or shine. We employ more than 50 people, we charge no membership fees, people can play and take classes on our courts for as little as $45 an hour," said Sutton East Owner Tony Skolnick.

Opponents to year-round tennis say residents should not have to pay to play on public land.

"The issue here is not tennis versus softball, it's not rich versus poor and it's not who uses it," said Upper East Side resident Bob Bailin. "The issue here is this is a public space, this is a public park that's being sold to a private entity, that's the issue."

After listening to testimony from both sides, Community Board 8 rejected the city and the tennis concession's proposal to have tennis in the bubble all year long, opting to leave the arrangement as it is -- eight months for tennis, four for other activities like softball when the bubble is down.

Read More:

UES Board Deflates Year-Round Tennis Proposal

NY1 - March 17, 2010 - By Rebecca Spitz 

No Gang War,  but a Turf Battle Nonetheless

New York Times City Room - March 18,  2010 , By ELISA MALA

Upper East Side Land Grab As Parks' Looks to Sell Ballfield to Tennis Concessionaire

A Walk In The Park - February 17, 2010 

Central Park Tennis Bubble Plan to be Revisited by Upper East Side Community Board 8

A proposal by the Parks Department's revenue division would erect four thirty-five foot high bubbles from November to March on Central Park's tennis courts near W. 95th Street. (Photo:Flickr/Bobcatnorth)

Community Board Seven on the Upper East Side will revisit the Parks Department's controversial proposal to install four thirty-five foot tennis bubbles in Central Park, a National Historical landmark. According to several board members, CB 8 voted on a "concept" for the plan without knowing many details. CB 8, located on the Upper East Side heard the parks department plan a year before Community Board Seven, located on the Upper West Side where the tennis concession is located. 

"This was clearly a strategy on the City's part," said a CB 7 board member.

The plan most likely come before CB8's Landmarks Committee in April or May.  - Geoffrey Croft

MANHATTAN

Community leaders on the Upper East Side will likely revisit their decision to approve a winter bubble over Central Park's tennis courts after Upper West Side residents complained it would create an exclusive club,  according to a follow up report by DNAinfo.

Expensive court fees and environmental concerns were cited by Upper West Side residents at two recent public presentations to Community Board 7, causing Community Board 8 on the Upper East Side to take a closer look at the plan it approved in February of last year.

"It is most likely we will revisit the issue knowing this new information about the bubble," said Jackie Ludorf, chairwoman of Community Board 8. "Especially because this has become a big issue with Board 7."

It will cost visitors $30 to $100 an hour to play on the climate-controlled courts during the winter depending on demand, according to the Parks Department. The plan also calls for golf carts to shuttle uptown tennis players from Fifth Avenue and Central Park West to the courts.

"I was originally in support of the program, but at a lower fee," said Upper West Side resident Al Lewis, who has played tennis at Central Park near 95th Street for 15 years. "It's going to be ugly, and it's going to be an exclusive club."

The environmental impact and noise from a 24-hour generator needed to keep the climate-controlled bubble inflated raised concerns by Community Board 7, Ludorf said. The cost to run the generator and heat the 26 courts during the winter is part of the reason for the expensive fees.

Read More:

Central Park Tennis Bubble Plan to be Revisited by Upper East Side Community Board

DNAinfo- March 17, 2010 - Bt Serena Solomon  

A winter racquet in Central Park 

New York Post - March 16, 2010  - By JEREMY OLSHAN

Golf Cart Rides from Fifth Avenue Proposed in Plan for Central Park Tennis Courts
DNAinfo - March 12, 2010 - By Serena Solomon

Three Men Arrested in Rockaway Beach Over Stabbed Body

NYC Park Crime Blotter 

(Queens- March 17, 2010) A 25 year-old Hispanic male was stabbed while on the boardwalk at Rockaway Beach - (Beach 12th Street) this morning at approx.12:30 a.m. The man was pronounced DOA by EMS on the scene.  NYPD arrested 3 suspects.  - Geoffrey Croft

The police approached three men on the beach in Far Rockaway, Queens, on Wednesday just after midnight and found the body of a 25-year-old man who had been stabbed to death,

according to the New York Times. 

The three men were arrested. Officers had stopped near the Boardwalk and Beach 12th Street to check on an occupied car illegally parked near the beach, a law enforcement official said. It was not immediately clear if the car was connected to the killing, or if the body was on the beach itself or nearby. Charges are pending.

Midnight Gathering on the Beach, and a Killing

New York Times City Room - March 17, 2010 -By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT

Most Asked Question In Brooklyn Bridge Park: Where Can I Drink? - Official

According to a vice president of The Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation the most asked question during the park's design phase was, where can the public drink alcohol in the park.

Public boozehounds rejoice — Brooklyn Bridge Park will have an outdoor wine bar and plaza if everything goes according to plan, development officials revealed on Monday night, according to The Brooklyn Paper.

The Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation, which will oversee the “park” until the new agreement for the city’s takeover of the waterfront development is completely hashed out, has already sought proposals for Pier 1’s concessions, and plans to do the same for Pier 6 in the coming weeks.

City and park officials told Community Board 2’s Parks and Recreation Committee that they’ll seek two stands and a restaurant at Pier 6 at the end of Atlantic Avenue, and four concessions at Pier 1 at the foot of Old Fulton Street — including an elevated wine bar for skyline-side sippin’.

“We’re looking for concessions that cater to everyone — and one of the biggest questions we got during the design phase was, ‘Where can I drink publicly in your park?’” said David Lowin, a vice president with the corporation. “Of course, it would be cordoned off so that drinking only takes place in one spot.”

Read More:

Sunset sippin’ looks like a go at Brooklyn Bridge Park
The Brooklyn Paper - March 16, 2010 - BY Andy Campbell

Hundreds Rally To Cut Programs At Riverbank State Park

Hundreds of residents hoping to prevent the state budget ax from falling on a popular Manhattan park turned out for a rally in West Harlem Saturday to try to save some of the recreational facility's programs. NY1's Ruschell Boone filed the following report.

MANHATTAN

Carol Martin has spent years at Riverbank State Park, learning how to swim, dance, play the guitar and do other activities. Now, some of those programs are on the chopping block due to State Parks Department budget cuts, and the thought of losing the programs Martin believes has helped her to develop a healthy lifestyle left her in tears.

"I come here five days a week. I need it, we need it. We have a fantastic dance program and they do innovative things, especially for the seniors and the children," said Martin.

Hoping to save the programs, Martin joined more than 200 park users at a rally Saturday to protest the proposed cuts to operating hours and programs.

"Riverbank is known for its wide array of outdoor concerts. They would not happen at Riverbank and they also have a number of events for seniors they will be cut," said resident Elizabeth Brett. "The children's performances, the Popsicle Series, will be cut. There will be devastating cuts for the summer camp."

"This facility for this community is critical. They talk about the health, that people are getting unhealthy and getting fatter. You don't take away facilities that take away life skills," said instructor Wendy Hilliard.

At the rally, many demonstrators accused the state of going back on a promise it made to the community decades ago in exchange for building a waste treatment facility at the site.

"I understand that there's a budget crisis, but they need to honor that promise as long as they are sending 170 million gallons of raw sewage into this community everyday," said Brad Taylor of Community Board 9.

Read/View More:

Community Rallies To Save Cut Programs At West Harlem Park

NY 1 - March 13, 2010 - By Ruschell Boone

Bloomy’s Takeover Does Not Ensure A Real Brooklyn Bridge Park - Editorial

1 and done? Here’s the first piece of Brooklyn Bridge Park — an aerial shot of Pier 1 at the foot of Old Fulton Street (left). It’s ready to be played on, but it won’t open until, supposedly, this spring.

Mayor Bloomberg’s announcement that the city will take over the construction of the unbuilt portions of Brooklyn Bridge Park has changed very little for the Brooklynites who will use this supposedly public park, according to an editorial in The Brooklyn Paper.

Certainly, anything that moves construction of the waterfront development’s open space — and wrests control from the big-business-dominated Empire State Development Corporation — must be seen as positive.

But Mayor Bloomberg’s commitment of $55 million in construction funding — with more supposedly coming in the future — is paltry. And the “takeover” of the park is just a paper chase; instead of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation, which is one of our state’s myriad public “authorities” that operate with little oversight, Mayor Bloomberg’s Brooklyn Bridge Park would also be overseen by a new public authority called “the Brooklyn Bridge Park Operating Entity.”

Lipstick, meet pig.

Most important, Bloomberg’s unwillingness to abandon the park development’s central flaw — that its annual maintenance budget must be financed through fees on commercial, residential, retail or dining operations inside the park’s footprint — shows that Brooklynites are still not getting what we have long dreamed about: a genuine park.

Sen. Daniel Squadron has put forth a reasonable tweak of the park’s self-financing scheme, namely, skimming off a bit of the newly hiked property taxes after non-residential buildings near the park flip to residential use.

But, for now, that financing scheme is still just a legislator’s proposal.

Bloomberg told a Brooklyn Paper reporter on Wednesday that for now, the plan still calls for housing and other revenue-producing entities inside the development rather than doing what we have long demanded: placing the 1.7-mile strip of green under control of the city Parks Department, which maintains parks the old-fashioned way — through the city budget process, where everyone from elected officials to watchdog groups to special interests get to fight it out.

Devoid of that public process, what we will get at Brooklyn Bridge Park is what we have decried for years: a public park that is not public at all, but an expensively landscaped front and back yard for the housing that will be built within it.

Editorial: Bloomy’s takeover does not ensure a real Brooklyn Bridge Park The Brooklyn Paper

The Brooklyn Paper - MArch 11, 2010

City Get Its Wish - State Park Funding Mechanism For Brooklyn Bridge Park

Rendering of the 1.3 mile Brooklyn Bridge Park. The park is currently under construction.

Brooklyn

For months the City has been angling to take control of the much delayed and much maligned Brooklyn Bridge Park project from the State.  It seems they finally got their wish. 

The new deal will hand over control of the former City/State project to the Bloomberg administration. By insisting that the park be "self-sustaining"  as a condition for the city taking control, the administration successfully achieved one of its most sought after goals–to inherit NY State's funding scheme its employes for the maintenance and operation of its public parkland. Much of the funding for the operation of NY State's parks is paid from concession and fee revenue. One of the most contentious issues with Brooklyn Bridge Park is the inclusion of housing that the government insists is necessary to pay for the park's operation.  

The project has ballooned to more than $ 350 million dollars and has been dramatically altered from its original concept. 

After months of wrangling, state officials have agreed to let New York City finish building — and paying for — Brooklyn Bridge Park, in the hope of speeding its progress, according to the New York Times.

A small portion of the park has been completed, but its opening and further construction — atop a ribbon of piers on the Brooklyn side of the East River — have been delayed while the state and city sparred over control. City officials worried that the state’s fiscal troubles could stymie the project, and state officials appeared reluctant to surrender bragging rights for the park.

Under the agreement, expected to be approved on Wednesday by the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation, a state-city body, the Bloomberg administration would contribute $55 million to the $350 million project in the next fiscal year. That would allow stalled work to begin on Pier 2, designated for sports.

“Now is the time when we need to make sure the long-term funding for these types of projects is in place,” said Robert C. Lieber, deputy mayor for economic development. “So we’ll step up and fund it, and with that we want the responsibility for working with everyone and getting it done.”

Peter Davidson, the state’s chief development official and chairman of the park corporation, said that with major construction ready to begin, it made sense to put the city in charge. “You’d just rather have one government body at the point of making decisions,” he said.

Read More:

State Agrees to Let the City Finish Brooklyn Bridge Park

New York Times - March 9, 2010  - Diane Cardwell