A 17 year old female was forcibly touched by an unidentified 20 year old homeless male yesterday according to sources. The incident happened along the East Drive & Bridle path at approximately 6:10 pm. The area was searched but no arrests were made. – Geoffrey Croft
Friday, November 5, 2010
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Long Neglected Edgar Allan Poe Cottage Looking For Maintenance Funds
Capital work is finally moving forward on the long neglected Edgar Allan Poe house, part of the Parks Department's Historic House Trust. According to the Daily News it costs about $300,000 a year to run the cottage located on East Kingsbridge Road and the Grand Concourse. The city pays about 40%, and The Bronx County Historical Society pays the remainder. The Society is trying to raise a $2 million endowment. The cottage, which is on the National Register of Historic Places is closed during the six- to nine-month $ 1 million dollar renovation that began in August. (Photo: R Chu for the New York Daily News)
Bronx
Edgar Allan Poe may have died penniless, but the Bronx County Historical Society is trying to raise $2 million on the strength of his name, according to the New York Daily News.
The not-for-profit group hopes to create an endowment for the Edgar Allan Poe Cottage in Fordham to help with operating expenses.
"In order to do our very best, we need to do this," said Kathy McAuley, director of the Poe Cottage, where the author of mystery and macabre wrote some of his better known works. "There are so many things we are not able to do because of a small budget."
It costs about $300,000 a year to run the city-owned cottage at East Kingsbridge Road and the Grand Concourse, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. The city pays about 40%, with the society footing the remainder.
The society operates through donations and some city and state grants. So far, nearly $20,000 has been raised for the endowment, McAuley said.
"It will let us expand our hours and our programming. And it will take some of the pressure off the historical society to pay the expenses," she said.
Read More:New York Daily News - November 3, 2010 - By Mike Jaccarino
City Seeks Pest Control Services For Brooklyn Bridge Park
The Bloomberg administration recently laid off 63 of the city's 84 pest control workers.
A video capture of rats in Collect Pond Park in lower Manhattan in July. On October 29 - the same day the Brooklyn Bridge Park RFP for pest control was published - the City released bid documents for the long delayed re-construction of the park dubbed "Rat Zoo." The Bids are due December 8, 2010.
On October 29, a Request for Proposals (RFP) for pest control in
Brooklyn Bridge Park (BBP) was released. According to the ad posted in the City Record, the park "is seeking bids for Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and extermination services for the park. The Contractor shall furnish all supervision, labor, materials and equipment necessary to accomplish the monitoring, management and pest removal components of the pest program. The Contractor shall perform inspections (frequency and timing to be agreed upon by both BBP and the Selected Respondent) and provide proper identification, management and treatment of pests consistent with IPM principles in order to maintain, control and to prevent infestations."
Jeffrey Sandgrund -seen in an embarrassing video widely seen on You Tube regarding artists selling art in the park - is the contact for the contract.
Is there a rat problem in Brooklyn Bridge Park?
"Absolutely not," Regina Myer, president of the city development corporation overseeing the park’s construction, told the New York Post on Wednesday when asked about the solicitation.
Myer said the contract is about being "pro-active" so that mice, rats and other pests never become an issue at the waterfront park, according to the paper. She said Skanska, which is building the park, provided pest control services early on and before the sections at Piers 1 and 6 in Brooklyn Heights were completed earlier this year.
The bids are due November 19, 2010.
Let's hope the park rats aren't as big as what Brooklyn-based transportation consultant Brian Ketcham recently caught. The bloody creature-the size of a small possum - was rummaging through his front yard on Pacific Street in Brooklyn. It seems that the rats had been initially attracted by Trader Joe's, around the corner from Brian's house, when the store's garbage disposal system had broken down and waste was left on the street for pick up, according to the Neighborhood Retail Alliance.
Read More:
Rats not welcome at Brooklyn Bridge Park
New York Post - November 3, 2010
A Walk In The Park - July 28, 2010
Shuttered Carousel In Forest Park Temporarily "Opened"
The production company made a "substantial" donation to Forest Park, the Daily News reports, but where exactly did this money go?
The shuttered carousel in Forest Park gets ready for its close up. William Adee of Local 52 cleans a wooden horse as film crews get set to shoot 'The Sitter' at the closed treasure. Local activists have been trying to re-open the carousel for years. (Photo Farriella for the NY Daily News)
Queens
Fans of the Forest Park Carousel were thrilled to see a glimpse of the shuttered treasure during a flurry of activity at the site this week.
But they shouldn't get their hopes up, according to the Daily News.
The workers cleaning and fixing the 100-year-old carousel were part of a film crew shooting scenes for "The Sitter."
The movie, starring Jonah Hill of "Superbad" fame and Sam Rockwell, has been described as a loose remake of the 1987 comedy "Adventures in Babysitting."
"It's a major set piece for us," Peter Silbermann, the film's publicist, said of the carousel. "We're shooting in Forest Park for four or five days."
The city-owned carousel has sat dormant for two years while the Parks Department searches for an operator to run it as a concession. Elected officials originally said it would reopen this past summer. But negotiations with a possible vendor appear to have fallen through.
The Parks Department is still actively searching for a concessionaire and plans to issue new request for proposals in January, agency officials said.
Civic leaders have pressed the city to move quickly, worried that the hand-carved masterpiece is deteriorating.
Read More:New York Daily News - November 3, 21010 - By Lisa L. Colangelo
A Walk In The Park - July 24, 2010
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Mill Pond Park Tennis Charging Up $ 80 An Hour In South Bronx - Part of New Yankee Stadium Deal
Bronx
NEIGHBORS of a new South Bronx tennis club on city parkland say its high prices are not courting locals, who can’t afford to pay up to $80 an hour to swat a ball over a net, according to the New York Daily News.
The courts at the Gotham Stadium Tennis Center, “were not built for us,” said Joyce Hogi, 67, who lives on the Grand Concourse. “They were not built for the community.”
The 16 tennis courts — 12 of them housed in a large bubble — are in Mill Pond Park on the Harlem River, north of 149th St.
Run by NY Tennis at Mill Pond, a private company under contract with the Parks Department, the indoor courts cost $32 to $80
Nabe complains it’s shut out an hour, depending on time and
day.
“We want to be a good community partner,” said Joel Kassan of NY Tennis.
After the bubble is taken down in May, NY Tennis will use four courts for outdoor lessons. Parks spent $16 million to build the courts and renovate a historic park building, set to acommodate a Gotham Stadium clubhouse and cafe, said NY Tennis partner Mike DelPrete.
The clubhouse, opening soon, will include locker rooms and a lounge with wireless Internet.
“It’s not a private club, but it feels like one,” said Kassan.
NY Tennis chipped in more than $2 million for the bubble, clubhouse and cafe. But Anita Atonetty, 53, of Highbridge, fumed that, “This is tax dollars for a private company.”
While Kassan said he hopes to draw players from the Bronx, he also expects business from Manhattan’s upper East Side and New Jersey.
“The courts are only 15 minutes by car from the upper East Side,” he said. “We expect
people to come across the George Washington Bridge.”
Mill Pond Park was built after the new Yankee Stadium erased more than 22 acres of local green space, including a tennis facility at Mullaly Park, where indoor courts were $34 to $64 an hour.
“The original courts were in the middle of the community,” said Geoffrey Croft of New York City Park Advocates. “These are a mile away in an industrial area.”
Killian Jordan of the Grand Concourse thinks NY Tennis has the right to turn a profit. But Jordan, 64, said the costly facility may not benefit “some 14-year-old kid from the South Bronx who could be the next Arthur Ashe.”
But the tennis court operators countered that free programs run by the New York Junior Tennis League and City Parks Foundation will serve local players.
Court Not Playing Ball
Nabe complains it's shut out
New York Daily News - November 2, 2010 - By Daniel Beekman
Monday, November 1, 2010
Another Central Park Bike Confrontation With PEP Leads To A Second Famly Member's Arrest
Manhattan
Be careful what you wish for.
A man was arrested in Central Park -- after he allegedly dared an officer to bust him for trying to illegally rent bikes to tourists,
Sadi Traore, 20, of Harlem was in the park near Columbus Circle at 2:30 p.m. Oct. 25 when a parks enforcement officer heard him soliciting passing tourists for bike rentals, sources said.
The officer approached him, and Traore promised not to solicit anymore, but he refused to leave the park when the officer ordered him to do so, the sources said.
Traore then put his arms behind his back and dared the officer to arrest him.
The officer obliged, but Traore allegedly struggled with him.
Traore was charged with criminal solicitation, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.
A Walk In The Park has learned that Sadi is the brother of pedicab driver Amadou Traore who starred in a widely seen You Tube video depicting a confrontation he had with Park Enforcement Patrol (PEP) in December 2008. Mr. Traore, 19 - who stands 6-feet-5 inches tall and weighs 250 pounds, resisted the officers - one a 5-feet 4 female - on Fifth Ave and 59th Street near Central Parks Grand's Army Plaza. The officers were eventually able to subdue the man - with assistance from an NYPD Highway cop - as seen in the end of the graphic video.
According to Mr. Amadou's account at the time, he spent a week in jail and had four pedicab related arrests. – Geoffrey Croft
Read View More:
New York Post - November 1, 2010 - John Doyle and Jessica Simeone
gothamist - December 25, 2008 - By Jen Chung
Caught On Tape: Pedicab Operator, Officer Struggle
MSNBC.COM - Jan 8, 2009 - By Pei-Sze Cheng and John P. Wise
Residents Fight NYU Over Parkland Destruction
Mercer Playground was initiated by the Lower Manhattan Neighbors' Organization. NYU's current expansion plan includes tearing down two playgrounds, a community garden and a dog run and replacing them with skyscrapers. Local residents and Community Board 2 want the open space — which extend between W. Third and Houston Sts. — transferred to the Parks Department. N.Y.U. is hoping to add up to 1.5 million to 2 million square feet of space in its “campus core” around Washington Square, mainly by building two superblocks. Community residents are fighting back. Despite having an alternative location, NYU recently destroyed a row of more than a dozen trees along the same strip on Mercer street to build a co-generation power plant despite community objections.
Manhattan
Greenwich Village is telling New York University to park it - somewhere else.
Residents are pushing to have the ownership of three parcels of land transferred from the city Transportation Department to the Parks Department. The move, they hope, will keep the land from falling into the hands of NYU, which is eying them for potential expansion.
The parcels, located between W. Third and Houston Sts. and LaGuardia Place and Mercer St. are currently owned by the DOT. Community Board 2 has advocated unsuccessfully in the past that ownership be transferred to the Parks Department.
"Attempts were made in 1967, 1979, 1995 and at other times to remap city-owned parkland strips from the Department of Transportation to the Parks Department," said community activist Terri Cude at a recent Board 2 meeting. "NYU blocked the transfers each time."
Park and community advocates say Mercer Playground is one of the few safe places for neighborhood kids to learn how to ride bicycles and roller blade. The Parks Department maintains t Mercer Playground and Time Landscape and— yet all are under the jurisdiction of the city’s Department of Transportation (DOT).
(Photo: Courtesy Mercer Playground via DNAinfo)
This time, Village residents have mobilized, sending petitions to various city officials - including Mayor Bloomberg, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe - imploring the city to transfer control of the public spaces to the Parks Department.
If that happens, the Mercer Playground, LaGuardia Park and the Mercer-Houston Dog Run would be spared from NYU's expansion plans, which include the construction of new dormitories and a 40-story hotel and the remodeling of the Coles Sports Center.
But the university isn't showing signs of backing down. Lori Mazor, NYU associate vice president for planning and design, says the university plans to "take these blocks, that have a very interesting and complex history, and knit them back into the city."
According to the university's 2031 expansion plan, a large new green space will be created in the middle of the Mercer St./LaGuardia Place "super block," adjacent to where the Mercer Playground now sits.
The LaGuardia Corner Garden has been at it's current location at the corner of Bleecker Street and LaGuardia Place since 1981. Neighbors of LaGuardia Place Park paid for landscaping and raised funds for a new toddler park themselves. Under NYU's plan, residents would also lose the Mercer-Houston Dog Run. (Photo: Elisabeth Robert/The Villager)
Read More:
New York Daily News - November 1, 2010 - By Michael Wursthorn
Residents want to protect park strips from NYU by bringing them under the purview of the Parks Department.
DNAinfo - October 22, 2010
A Walk In The Park - May 18, 2010
The Villager - June 23, 2010 - By Lincoln Anderson
The Villager - December 6, 2006 - By Albert Amateau
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